A Pleasing Aroma
A Pleasing Aroma - Devotions for 5-18-22
2 Corinthians 15-16 “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?”
A pleasing aroma, the aroma of Christ. This may seem like a strange text, but to me it is very real this morning. Here is my strange story of aromas.
A little over a week ago a skunk decided to dig a hole under the concrete next to my office and make its home under the floor of my office. At first, I just noticed a slight aroma, but that aroma grew and grew. It grew to the point that I though the church might need to cancel one or more planned events, events that others were using the fellowship hall for. My office connects directly to the fellowship hall, so it to smelled, just not quite as much as my office. The smell got to the point in my office that I dreaded going to work. Thankfully a friend brought over a machine to help clear some of the smell, and a fresh breeze would sometimes blow in from the direction that brought in clean air. But still, that smell was always there to some degree.
So, I started a war. A war with a skunk! I put things into its den to discourage it from returning, I tried flooding it, I tried all sorts of things to get rid of it. And then I started covering the entrance hole to see if it was still around. Two days ago, I put the dirt back into its hole and during the night it cleared it out, and my office smelled the same. Yesterday I did it again and this morning when I came to my office, I noticed that it didn’t smell as bad and that the dirt had not been disturbed. I hope that means it left for good. If it did, I will permanently plug that hole!
To my point, it smelled better. Not great, but enough to give me hope and allow me to work easier in my office. I immediately thought of this verse in 2 Corinthians about us who live for and do the work of Jesus in this world, being a pleasing aroma to God. We smell good! Good to God and good to those we are shining the light of the Gospel to in this world. We bring to God and to those we bring a Christian witness to, a pleasing aroma.
This concept of being a pleasing aroma to God and to others may seem a bit strange and it is a somewhat dated word picture. But back before people took multiple showers a week, and before deodorant, before regular garbage collection, before flush toilets, and before all sorts of odor blocking things in our homes and for our bodies, the world of people smelled differently. I remember watching a documentary on life in the middle-ages and one of the things it said was that people’s lives back then were different, and one of the big differences was the smell. People smelled more. Their homes smelled. The animals around them smelled. Everything smelled worse.
As a result, odor blocking or enhancing things like perfume were very important. You read about very expensive perfumes in the bible, even one story where a sinful woman came and wiped the feet of Jesus with her expensive perfume. The whole foot washing thing was another odor preventing thing back then. And so, an odor enhancing thing was common and considered very good. Even the burnt sacrifices that the people of Israel did to remove their sin was a pleasing aroma to God as it wafted upwards to heaven. Odor enhancing things were necessary and part of making every-day life more enjoyable.
It is today as well. Remember smelling a great perfume as someone walked by? Remember walking into a newly cleaned hotel room? Remember the aroma of your neighbor’s grill when he was grilling burgers or ribs or steak? It made you hungry! Good smells are wonderful, and they attract us to them.
God says that when we are walking with Jesus and serving Him, we smell good. Good to Him and good to our neighbor. And that smell, like someone’s great perfume or our neighbor’s grill, attracts us. We want to walk over to our neighbor’s and invite ourselves over for dinner. And the neighbor, or family member, or friend who “smells” us as we walk with and be a living witness for Jesus, causes some of them to want to walk over and get what we have. Jesus.
So, let us be that pleasing aroma to God and to our neighbor by living for Jesus and being a living witness for Him.
Pastor Gary
PS. And pray that the skunk has left for good!
Abide in Me
Abide in Me - Devotions for 5-11-22
John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”
It is planting season. My wife is in our garden as I write this planting cucumbers and squash. Several other things are already in the ground with some of them growing already, and we have a trip to the store planned to get the rest of the things we want to grow this summer so we can enjoy fresh vegetables all summer long and into the fall. We love garden fresh crops that we have raised, it is just something we both grew up doing and love to continue doing.
Jesus used many illustrations from nature to teach His disciples and all people about the things of God. In John 15 Jesus uses the grape vine as an illustration. Grapes were a very popular crop, at least as popular as they are today. Most people would grow them and many farmers would grow a lot of grapes too. Grapes make wine and without refrigeration or the ability to freeze things, wine was something people could make and keep for a long time. Wine was also something that made a good cash crop and was sold all over the known world. Wine was a common item on ships carrying goods to faraway places.
So, when Jesus uses this illustration of a grape vine, everyone would have been able to understand it. Everyone would have known what a grape vine looked like and what it did.
Jesus says that we are to abide in Him as a branch abides in the vine. He says that as we abide in Him, we will bear fruit for the Lord.
So, what is Jesus saying? He is saying that just as the branch which grows the grapes needs to stay connected to the vine, we need to stay connected to Jesus in order to grow deeper in our faith and life.
The branch does not have roots. The vine does. The branch cannot live without being connected to the vine. Any branch that is broken or cut off from the vine will wither and die in a very short time. The sun will shine and the heat will cause the branch to use up all its moisture and the leaves will wilt and the branch will ultimately turn brown and die.
That happens to Christians too who think they can stand alone in this world, Christians who don’t stay connected to the Lord. When we do that, as it seems we all try at various times, we dry up and may die spiritually. We will become that branch with withered leaves and we will become spiritually empty.
But, as we stay connected to Jesus, as we pray, as we read the bible, as we have fellowship with other Christians, as we attend worship services, as we take time to be quiet with the Lord, we will become strong and vibrant in our faith. This should be our goal, to stay strong and vibrant in our faith. So, stay healthy as a Christian. We need to work on that all our lives, or we will begin to shrivel up in our faith and become spiritually dry.
How is your spiritual life? Have you been watering your soul by staying connected to Jesus? Have you been connecting to Jesus in worship and prayer? Have you been interacting with Christian friends in fellowship? These things we need to practice.
The good news is that as we do those things, God will be with us and we will stay strong and be able to stand against whatever the world or the devil throws our way. In addition to that, we will bear fruit for the Lord. Others will see Jesus in us and some of them may come to faith too.
Pastor Gary
Rain!
Psalm 65: “You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide grain, for so you have prepared it.”
Here in Colorado, we have had a very dry April. The driest ever, at least in some areas, and it shows. I normally mow my lawn for the first time toward the end of March, and then I mow it weekly starting in April. So far this year, I have mowed part of it once. I also usually turn on my sprinkler system toward the end of May when it starts to become dry. I began watering my lawn a couple of weeks ago this spring.
We have been in a drought and it is showing in how many plants are not as green as they would normally be. I’m sure the farmers and ranchers have been very concerned. There has even been talk of an extended fire season because of how dry is has been.
But it is raining now! As I look out my office window, it is wet, it is raining! I give thanks to God for the rain because we really need it. I don’t know how much it is supposed to rain, or if this means a return to normal spring rains, but it is raining today. For that I praise God.
King David knew the importance of rain too. In Psalm 65 David writes a song about God sending the rain and watering the earth. It is a beautiful Psalm and when I get to heaven, I hope to hear it played as David originally wrote and sang it. I bet it was a beautiful song. I would also guess that when it rained in Israel, especially after any extended dry period, that they sang this Psalm in their temple and synagogues. Maybe the farmers sang it out in their fields too!
The earth needs moisture. The land needs the rain. We need to give God thanks for the things we usually take too much for granted, like the rain.
Usually when it rains, we only think of how that is impacting our day, like raining out our favorite baseball team’s game of the day, or raining out a planed picnic. One time our family went camping and it rained every day of the full week we were in a tent. We gripe when the rain causes an interruption in our planned activities. But the land rejoices. The freshly watered earth sings for joy.
In verses 12 and 13 of this Psalm it says that creation; the meadows, valleys, hills and wilderness “gird themselves with joy” and “shout and sing together for joy.”
I’m sure the area around here that has been so dry for so long is shouting and singing for joy to God because creation knows that its creator is blessing it with rain. We should shout and sing for joy too because we who know our creator, know where the rain comes from. God is blessing us with rain and now the land can turn green again, like it usually does every spring.
Let us never take God’s normal, daily blessings for granted. Let us learn the lesson of the drought, when it rains, let us give thanks. When God sends our daily bread, our daily blessings, let us sing for joy.
When our life feels like a drought in some way, we need to remember the lesson of the drought and give thanks for the small, daily blessings we often take for granted. Let us never take any of God’s blessings for granted. He who supplies the earth with rain, is the same one who supplies our daily lives with the daily blessings we all too often, take for granted.
Let us sing for joy to God for all the things He blesses us with.
Pastor Gary
The Lord is Near
The Lord is Near - Devotions for 4-27-22
Psalm 145:18 “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”
Near, God is near to every one of us who call on Him, to all of us who believe in Jesus. That is a promise made in many places, in various ways all through the bible. That God is close, near, at hand or however you want to phase it. God loves us and He stays close to all who are His children.
This goes with the idea of calling God, “Abba, Father,” that we read about in Romans and other places. He is our Heavenly Father. He is closer than a brother. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. You get the idea; God is near to all who call on His name.
If you have called on God, He is close to you. Even when you don’t feel like He is close, He still is. That is because He does not change like people do. We say we are close to some family member or friend but then when they need us, we are not there, or when we suddenly need them, they are not around. We are not as faithful as God is. We are not as faithful to those who we want to be close to as He is to us. Our loved ones and friends are not as faithful to us either, not as faithful as God is.
And that is the sad truth about friends and family. While we may want to be there for each other, sometimes we fail. While we have great intentions, sometimes it just doesn’t work out. And sometimes that is because the other person doesn’t even know how desperately we need them, or we don’t know how much they need us. We aren’t mind readers.
But God is. God knows how much we need Him. So, He is already there when we need Him. He is near to all who call on Him. God knows what is going on in our life, in our mind, in our heart, in our life and He who knows, cares and is already with us to help us through whatever it is that we need Him for.
Whatever is eating away at your heart, mind or soul is something God cares about. Turn to Him and He will be there with you. While it may seem that God is silent, or absent, He really isn’t. His promise to you is that He is there, now, in your time of need. You may feel His presence, you may not, but He is still there.
I was just talking with a friend who has a child who is falling apart. That child, like many others in this world, is having a hard time dealing with the realities of life. That child needs someone to be close to them, to help them through this difficult time in their life. And their dad is there, both of them. Their earthly dad is by their side and their heavenly dad is there as well.
He is there for us too, for you and for me. We may be doing great right now, but He is still there. He is there in the good times and the hard times. When we won’t be doing great someday, He will still be there for He is always close to those who call on Him.
Good news. That is what that is. We can know that God is always with us. Jesus promised that in Matthew 28, “I am with you always.” He who cares about us, who has the ability to help us, who is bigger than any problem we may have, is always with us. So, whatever you are going through, know this. God cares, and He is there with you to help you through this difficult part of life in a broken world.
Pastor Gary
New Life
New Life - Devotions for 4-20-22
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
I was out in my yard yesterday and again this morning and both times I noticed a robin gathering material to make her nest. This morning she seemed extra excited as I had the sprinkler on and she was working within the wet part of my yard. She liked the moisture, as I am sure we all would like more of that in the form of spring rains that are so needed this April.
Where are those April showers anyway?
That robin caused my mind to go to the new life that springs up at this time of year all over the world. New life abounds in the springtime. Perhaps that is why Jesus died in the spring, so He could rise to new life with everything else that was springing up then. My mind does wander sometimes doesn’t it!
Anyway, the grass is turning green, flowers starting to show in some daffodils that are still flowering and now some tulips starting to as well. Soon the flowering trees and bushes will begin to have their flowers as well.
What Deb and I were doing outside was planting the early seeds in our garden. It isn’t time for most garden seeds, but a few went in yesterday. With all the new plant life will come the babies too, baby birds in their nests, baby deer and elk in the forest and all the other wild creatures will be having their babies too. Spring is a wonderful time of year because of the new life that abounds as the world comes back to life after a cold winter.
And what about us? What about people? We have been given a chance to have new life too. Not because of the change of the seasons, but because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. He gives us new life.
In the text above it says that anyone who is in Christ, everyone who is a Christian, is a new creation. It says that the old has passed away and the new has come. That is the old self in all believers passes away and God creates in each believer a new person. The old Gary has died, and God created a new Gary. Put your name in there too, the old you has passed away and God created a new you the moment you became a believer in Jesus.
So, what does that mean? I still look the same in the mirror, only older. I still have many of the same abilities and inabilities. I am even still a sinner in need of a savior, my old sinful self isn’t fully gone, at least as I look in the mirror.
What God is telling us in this verse and others like it, is that our old sinful self has died with the death of Jesus on the cross and God is giving to us a new life to live by the Holy Spirit He sends into our hearts to guide us and to give us the power to live that new life.
No, we will never be able to live the perfect Godly life on this side of eternity, but we can begin. We can head in that direction. We can call upon Jesus, who gives us His Holy Spirit, and ask Him to help us walk in the new life that He died and rose again to give us. And Jesus is giving us that new life. It is ours for the taking, or for the living. So, let us leave behind the old self and walk in the new life that Jesus gives us.
Let us see the new life coming back because of the spring season rising up around us and remember to live into the new life in Christ that we have been given because of our faith in Jesus and His death and resurrection.
Pastor Gary
Abba, Father
Abba-Father - Devotions for 4-13-22
Romans 8:15 “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father?”
The scriptures use many words to describe God. He is Lord, the Almighty, Creator, Savior, Shepherd, and many others. But one Jesus used, and we are encouraged to use as well is very different. It is more personal, more intimate, more loving and closer, it is Abba, Father. That would be more like what a child would call their dad as they climb up into his lap and cuddle. At that point the dad would usually wrap the little child in his arms and hold them lovingly. The child would settle in and know that all was right in their world.
We need to know God in that same way as well. He is our Heavenly Father, but too often He seems far away and either formal or formidable. There are times when we need to understand that our Heavenly Father is closer to us than we can imagine. There are times when we need to be able to climb into His lap and cuddle as He wraps His loving arms around us and lets us know that everything is right in our world.
Perhaps this is one of those times for you now. Can you climb into God’s lap and snuggle in as He wraps you in His loving arms to hold you securely and lovingly?
Jesus did that often. He would go so a lonely place to pray and Jesus would pray to His Father in Heaven. Jesus needed to find that closeness to His Father, that intimate closeness that we all need.
One time Jesus used the very words, “Abba, Father,” was when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was wracked with pain as He faced the pain of the cross and His upcoming death. So, He climbed into His dad’s lap to receive that reassuring hug and closeness that would tell Him, everything was going to be OK.
We need to feel that closeness to God too. God should not always be formal to us and far away. He needs to be close. We need to be close to Him, as close as a little child to their loving father.
When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, He tore down the veil in the temple and called us to come to Him. We can come to God like a child would a loving father because of what Jesus did for us. He makes it possible for us to come to God, no longer as a sinner in need of repenting, but like a child to their loving father’s lap.
Yes, we need to repent. But when we have repented of our sin and received the forgiveness Jesus died to provide, then we can come like that child to their loving father and climb into His lap to be held securely in His love.
I urge you to do that now. Climb into your loving Heavenly Father’s lap and let Him wrap you in His strong and tender loving arms and let Him chase all the worries of the world away. He awaits, and I believe He loves those times as much as we do, just as a good earthly dad, loves it when their little one climbs into their lap for just such a tender moment.
James 4:8a, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
Pastor Gary
King Jesus!
King Jesus! - Devotions for 4-6-22
John 6:15 “Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”
This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the day many in Jerusalem came out to welcome Jesus into their city and show Him their support and honor. They even called Him the son of David, connecting Jesus to their greatest earthly king. What they did showed that some of them thought He was coming into Jerusalem to become their earthly king. But that isn’t what Jesus was doing.
In our text, at the height of His popularity, just after feeding the five thousand, Jesus read their minds and actions and saw that they were about to try and make Him their earthly king. So, Jesus did what He often did and withdrew from the crowds and went up on a mountain by Himself. Jesus would do that frequently in His life and the Bible often says of those times that Jesus would go up on a mountain to pray. I’m sure He did that in this instance too.
In truth Jesus is our King. He is the King of Kings. I Timothy 6:15 says of Jesus, “He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” Revelation 19:16 says; “On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”
So, Jesus is our king, He just isn’t the kind of king that the people thought when they tried to force Him to be their earthly king in John 6 or what some of the people thought when they welcomed Him into Jerusalem while waving palm branches, laying their coats in front of Him and singing “Hosannah, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” John goes on to say that Jesus fulfilled the prophesy from Zechariah “Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.”
So, while all Jerusalem was excited to welcome their king, Jesus would not fulfill what they thought He should, He would not free the Jews from the Roman emperor and soldiers and He would not ascend to the throne and be the king of their nation. Jesus was much bigger than that, He was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, not the ruler of an earthly kingdom.
There is a lot we can learn from the people of Jerusalem trying to make Jesus their king and Jesus letting them welcome Him into Jerusalem in the fashion of a king. One thing is that He really should be the king of our life. Jesus should be on the throne of our life. We should have Jesus as our personal king. A second lesson follows that and is that we should live and act as citizens under His leadership and rule. Jesus is the one we should put first in our life as it says in Matthew 6:33; “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”
So, while Jesus never ruled an earthly kingdom, while Jesus never sat on a throne in this world, while Jesus never wore a crown of gold and jewels, He is still our king. He will do all that in heaven, but He never was an earthly king. Instead, Jesus wore a crown of thorns and was killed a week after being welcomed as their king. Jesus died a sinner’s death to rise and become the real King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Let us welcome Jesus into our hearts and lives as the king of our life and let us follow Him in every way as He leads us. For He who was never an earthly king, is our king and He is the One we need to worship and follow. Let us welcome Him as our king, just as they tried to do so long ago, not as an earthly king, but as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords of our hearts and lives.
Pastor Gary
The Good Fight
The Good Fight - Devotions for 3-30-22
1 Timothy 6:12a “Fight the good fight of the faith.”
Today we are all watching a terrible fight on TV. The battle going on in Ukraine as the Russian forces invade that country. Many people have died and cities have been devastated. We don’t like fighting like that. Then there is the talk in Hollywood of the slap in the face from Will Smith to Chris Rock. In some places there is more talk about that than the much worse fight going on in Ukraine. Neither is good.
So, what does it mean in 1 Timothy to “Fight the good fight of the faith?” Is there such a thing as a “good fight?”
The second half of that verse goes a long way in answering that question. It talks about taking hold of the gift of eternal life. “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Paul is writing to his younger friend Timothy and reminding him of when Timothy came to faith many years earlier. Paul is also telling Timothy, and so us today as well, that the good fight is the battle to see people come to eternal life. We are in a battle for the souls of people and joining in that battle is joining in a good fight.
The fight we need to join is not with guns in Ukraine. Some people have gone there to do just that, but most of us should never do that. And I am not talking about taking to the streets to stop the violence that has been increasing in our cities. We need to leave that to the police and pray for them. The fight we need to be involved in is for the souls of people.
In our society today we can see that fight. It is where people are calling sin good and biblical truths evil. It is where people are being encouraged to turn against the things of God and people are leaving the church. Today the number of Christians in our society is becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of our population. That isn’t bad because Christians lose political power, it is bad because people are going lost. What makes this fight so important is that people are ending up spending their life apart from God and will spend eternity apart from God. The important fight, the important battle, is over the salvation of souls and eternal life.
So, let us fight the good fight. Let us remember that evil is real and we are in a battle over the souls of people. We need to join in the battle over the souls of people around us.
And how do we do that? We pray. We pray for our family members. We pray for our neighbors. We name them by name in our prayers to God. “Please save ____! They are lost and need you.” And we pray, “Use me in whatever way you can to help them know you.” Then we go out and spend time with them, get to know them, share life with them and pray with them. There will come an opportunity, if you are with them, where there will be something for which you can say, “Can I pray for you about that?” Take their hand and pray with them. Invite them into the presence of God and introduce them to the One who answers prayer and saves souls.
The good fight is not done with weapons of warfare, but with hands lifted up to heaven in prayer. It is fought with friendship and love. It is fought by spending time with people who need the Lord. Our enemy is not those who do not have the Lord, it is the devil who wants them to stay as far away from Christ or Christians as possible. Join in the good fight and bring your neighbor closer to the Lord by spending time with them and praying for and with them.
Pastor Gary
Master Craftsman
Master Craftsman - Devotions for 3-23-22
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
There is a Christian song “The Touch of the Master’s Hand.” It sings a ballad of an auction where an old violin is being sold and at first no one wants to make a bid. Then an old man walks up, tunes up the violin and plays it. After he is done playing it, the bidding starts off and keeps going higher. One person asks what made the difference in the bidding and we are told, “It was the touch of the master’s hand.”
The implication is that we are that old violin, in and of ourselves we are not able to do anything or be of any value. We are worthless. But, when God gets ahold of us and touches us, He makes us valuable and useable. His touch, the touch of the master craftsman makes an otherwise worthless person, of great value.
My dad, who did wood work, said basically the same thing. He would take a piece of wood that looked terrible, it would have worm holes, knots and other things that would normally make wood worthless and unusable and transform that wood into a show-piece. All the irregularities that made the wood useless to carpenters made it look amazing when he made it into a decorative bowl or other piece of art. It was the touch of the “master’s hand” that transformed that ugly piece of wood. My dad would say, “the worse the wood the better the woodwork.”
We need to remember that God is our master craftsman. He can take us with our knots, and wormholes and other imperfections and craft us into something useable for His kingdom. And usually, it is those very imperfections that we have, that God changes and uses to make us into precisely what He can use. He knows how He can use us and He molds us into what He knows is best. The emphasis is on Him and His touch, not on us and what we think our abilities are. He is the one who crafts us into what He knows He can use.
That is what this text in Ephesians says. We are His workmanship. We are created by God for some specific reason and He alone knows what that is, until He reveals it in us. Sometimes we know that reason and that purpose, sometimes we will see what that was when we get to heaven. But God knows. And He is the one who is honing us and crafting us into what He can use for His good.
So, what does this mean for Christians as we walk through this life? It means that we should allow God to do His work in us and make us into what He alone knows He wants us to be and do. There is a purpose for each one of us, so we should strive to allow God to create us into what He wants, not what we think we should be.
Often, we think we know what God wants us to be and do. I thought I was going to work in some outdoor area like lakes and fisheries. But God had other ideas. So, God called a guy with a degree in Aquatic Biology to become a fisher of men instead. He knew why He created me and He knew what He wanted me to do with my life, long before I had any clue.
What did God create you to be? What does God have for you to be doing in this life, what good works has God prepared you to be doing? Allow the master craftsman to work in your life and change you and mold you into a usable tool for His kingdom. Don’t try and tell God what you will do, let God mold you into what He wants so you can do what He created you for.
Pastor Gary
Power
Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Power has become important to me in recent days. Not political power, not military power, not the personal power of relationships either. The power that has become important to me lately is the power that lights up and heats my house. For various reasons both our natural gas and electrical power has had some issues lately.
We have not lost our power; we paid our bills on time and everything is running fairly smoothly. But there is a minor issue with our gas meter on the outside of our house and we had a crank call telling us that our power would be turned off. After calling our energy supplier we were told that someone had crank-called us to try and get us to give them some money. They also promised that our power was not in jeopardy of being turned off.
All this is actually a little funny and sad. It is funny because it is not in jeopardy, if it were, it would not be funny at all. It is sad because it shows that some people will try almost any way they can think of, to steal and cheat their way to getting someone else’s money.
There is another power too, especially for the Christian’s life. That power is the Holy Spirit, it is the power of God.
That power created the universe. That power continues to cause the sun to shine and the world to revolve around the sun. That power continues to give life to every animal, bird, fish, bug and plant in our world. That power continues to give each person the breath of life that we have. That power is the sum and total of all the power of everything there is. It is from that power that anything that has any power at all, receives its power.
So, as I was thinking about potentially losing power to my house, I realized how tiny and how little power that really is. Compared to God, all things are tiny and insignificant.
But, God considers each person on earth to be important enough that the Father sent His own Son to be born of a virgin and to live among us and then to die for us. So, the ultimate power of the universe, considers each person to be of great importance.
That is why Jesus returned to earth after rising from the dead and met with His disciples. He met with them to encourage them, to reassure them, to be with them and to send them. So, where did Jesus send His disciples? He sent them into all the world to be His witnesses. He sent them, and so us, to tell others about coming to faith in Jesus.
However, Jesus did not just say, “Go and do it in your own power.” He said that He was going to give us the power to be able to do it. We are not in this world on our own. We are not to rely on our own power to do the work that God calls us to do. We are not to venture out without the leading of the Holy Spirit, because we are weak and cannot do it on our own.
So, Jesus says, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”
Are you a believer in Jesus? Are you a person who has faith in God? Then the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you have power. You have the power of the creator of all with you. You have the One with all power with you. You have received God’s power because you have the Holy Spirit living in you.
Live in that power. Walk in that power. Do not walk in your own power, walk with God.
Pastor Gary
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Hope
Hebrews 6:19 “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil.”
Hope, we all need it. Without hope life is very hard. Without hope there is no future. Without hope people die inside. But, with hope, people have been able to withstand almost any and every sort of problem, pain, or difficult situation. When given hope in a hard place, people have risen to victory over seemingly impossible odds. Hope makes life worth living, even in very difficult circumstances.
Hebrews 6 talks about hope. So too do many other verses in the bible. It says in verse 18 that we who are believers in Jesus can have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. That hope is in Jesus. Jesus is our hope. Jesus gives us hope. Our hope is both for having God with us in this life as we walk through all the ups and downs of life lived in this world and for eternity. We have hope for life in both worlds if we have Jesus.
Then verse 19 states that this hope, the hope we have in Jesus, is an anchor of the soul. It is a hope that is both sure and steadfast. It is a hope we can lean on, trust in, depend upon no matter how hopeless our situation in life seems. With Jesus we can always have hope in the storms of life.
In one story Jesus was in a boat with his disciples and a storm came up. The other men thought they would capsize and die, but Jesus, their anchor of hope, was with them and instead of tossing an iron anchor into the water to steady them, Jesus spoke and calmed the sea. He was the anchor they needed. Jesus is that anchor of the soul to us as well. When the storms of this life want to overwhelm us, we can turn to Him and He can calm the sea.
When the Apostle Paul was on a ship that was being tossed by huge waves in a storm at sea, the captain relied on anchors to hold the ship steady. Unfortunately, those anchors were not going to keep the ship from being torn apart by the waves so Paul had them cut those anchors free and had everyone on that ship trust in the real anchor of their souls and everyone got to shore safely.
Whatever the situation you find yourself in, there is hope. There may not seem to be any hope found in this world, from doctors, from financial advisors, from loved ones, or from any other source we often turn to for hope in this world. But Jesus is there for the believer, for you. Jesus is your hope in the storms of this life. Whether they be health issues, financial issues, relationship issues, whatever issues the believer in Jesus faces, Jesus is there to give us hope in otherwise hopeless situations.
And our ultimate hope is heaven. Jesus gives us hope for the journey through this life, and He gives us the promise that this life is not all there is. So even when this life comes to an end, there is hope beyond this life, there is hope for eternity. For that reason, no matter what the doctor says, or whatever is going on in your life, there is hope. There is hope for this life as Jesus is the miracle working God, and there is hope for eternity because Jesus died to provide a way for all believers to go to heaven when this life is over.
So, hang on to your source of real help, hang on to the anchor of your soul, hang on to Jesus.
Pastor Gary
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday - Devotions for 3-2-22
Job 42:6 “Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Many people in various churches around the world will go to their church and receive ashes on their forehead as a symbol of a repentant heart, and sorrow for their sins. The ashes are often placed in the shape of a cross and are to be a public statement that the person acknowledges their sin and comes to God in repentance.
We all need a repentant heart because we are all sinners. So, whether we go to a church that participates in the practice of placing ashes on your forehead or one that doesn’t, we all need to know that we are sinners in need of a savior.
What I have been thinking of as I think of Ash Wednesday is the need of repentance. I am a sinner. I need to repent of my sin and ask Jesus to forgive my sins. I cannot forgive my own sin. I cannot do enough to buy my forgiveness either. Good works are an important part of our walk with God, we are all created and called to do good works for God and for others. But doing them will never earn my being forgiven. I am a sinner in need of being forgiven, we all are.
With that, we need Jesus. He alone can forgive sins, and He does. Praise God, Jesus forgives sin. My sin. Your sin. Jesus forgives the sin of all who come to Him in faith. Acts 16:31 says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Job was a man who had been through much. He had lost most of his family, his wealth, his health, and he was in great sorrow. As a result, Job donned the traditional sackcloth and ashes. He put on sackcloth, sat in ashes and covered himself with those ashes. He didn’t just daub a little ash on his forehead, he covered his whole body with ash.
While in that state of sorrow Job had three friends come to him and try and convince him that his pain was because he was a terrible sinner. They thought his hardships were proof that God was punishing him because God punishes sinners and blesses those who do good. Job was confused, he was a normal person, not some notorious sinner. But he was still a sinner, just not what his friends were accusing him of being. So, Job puts on the rough sackcloth and sits in ashes as a sign of his great inner sorrow.
After a long time of arguing with his friends, God shows up to this group of men. God asks Job a bunch of questions all to show Job that he wasn’t as good as he thought, even if he wasn’t as evil as his friends tried to say. Then in chapters 41 and 42 Job realizes his sin. It wasn’t that he did all sorts of evil things, it was that he was a normal sinner, he was human. In the verse above, Job repents. That is what he truly needed to do, repent of his sin. When he does that, God forgives Job and restores his life and health and blesses him.
Instead of continuing to live in sackcloth and ashes, Job rose out those ashes and returned to his life. No doubt he washed up and put on nice clothes and a smile on his face. He praised the Lord and returned to his life.
That is what we need to do as well. We need to recognize our sin, repent of that sin, then receive the washing of our sin from Jesus and rise up, praise God and return to the life God blesses us with. God forgives the sin of all who come to Him, repenting of their sin and believing in Jesus. And forgiven sinners need to rise up, praise God, and get on with life.
Pastor Gary
PS, And take a shower: wash those ashes off and put a smile on your face. God loves you!
Family
Family - Devotions for 2-23-22
Matthew 12:49 “And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, ‘Behold My mother and My brothers!’”
Several times in the past couple of weeks I have been reminded of the importance of family. My biological family and my church family.
You see, Debra and I live here in Arvada where we have lived for 26 years. When we moved here our children were 15, 12 and 9. Knowing how often some pastors move I prayed that we would be able to stay here long enough for all three to graduate from the same high school. I think God has a sense of humor and has more than answered that prayer. This spring two of our grandchildren will be graduating from high school and we have not moved yet.
Our problem is that both of them and all our children and grandchildren live out-of-state. They live in Washington and Wyoming while we still live here in Colorado. Add to that that the rest of our biological family lives in Minnesota and you can see that we do not have biological family living near us. We get lonely for them.
The other family we have is our church family. CIC is a small church that is really a spiritual family for those who attend here. Years ago, when I was serving here for the first time, the elders and I worked on a mission statement, and as part of the work we did for understanding CIC we came to the realization that one of the strongest parts of this church was that for many people it was their family. For some, like Deb and I, they had no other family in the area, they moved in from somewhere else and this church became their family. For others, their biological family that lived in the area did not share their faith and so this church became their spiritual family. In both cases, CIC has become their family.
That is as Christ would have it. In our text in Matthew the mother and siblings of Jesus come to visit Him. But when He is told that, He first asks who His family was and then He answers that by pointing to those who were His followers. I don’t think Jesus was dissing His mom or His siblings, I think He was just trying to make a point. The point He was making is that those who share the same faith and work together in ministry become as close as a biological family, and in some cases, even closer.
Debra and I have grown close to all those who make CIC their church home. We have come to love everyone here and love being surrounded by our spiritual family. We also love our biological family and love it when we can talk on the phone with them and even more so, when we can see them face-to-face. We love both of our families and are so thankful that all of them share our faith.
What does this say to us then about the church? It says that we should love one another. That we should serve one another. That we should bear one another’s burdens. That we should help one another. It says that we should work at being that family for each other which is really what all those “one-another” verses in the bible really say. We should work at being family for each other because we all need family.
When we miss our biological family, we have our church family. When we need a friend, we have each other. When we need to be encouraged, family is there. When we are lonely, or scared, or worried, or filled with joy that needs to be shared, we have each other.
Be there for one another, it joins us as the family of God we are supposed to be.
Pastor Gary
Change of Plans
Change of Plans - Devotions for 2-16-22
Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”
I have been trying to do something this week, all week actually. It isn’t something great or wonderful, just something I do twice a week almost every week. I go and donate plasma and when I am there, I pray for the people who are working there. It isn’t difficult but it is something I need plan around for as it takes some amount of time on the days I go there. This is one thing I have been able to do to meet new people and do something that I hope helps others, and where I go isn’t very far from my office at church. So, usually it works out pretty well, and doesn’t interfere with my work.
But, I have not been able to go there yet this week for reasons beyond my control. On Monday it was because I have to wait a certain amount of time between donations and that time had not yet been met. So, I didn’t go Monday and instead talked with my neighbor and prayed with him. On Tuesday I went, and the line was really long so I knew it would take longer than the time I had available. I had other appointments that day that would not allow me to go later. So, I tried again this morning and there was only a very short line. So, in I went.
I did notice something strange when I parked my car and that was that the doors were all blocked open, and this is mid-February after all. They were airing out the building because there was a very bad smell, but that was nearly done and they closed the doors as I entered the building. The smell was still there, just not too bad.
Then the manager came up and said they had no phone or internet access, and they were not sure when that would be fixed. But, I was sure welcome to wait, he just had no idea when or if the problem would be fixed. Without the internet they cannot take donations.
Well, again, I had a long list of other things I needed to do today, including write my weekly devotional. So, once again I have been prevented from doing what I had on my days to-do list. Three days in a row I have been prevented from doing something that I thought I should do, thought I could do, but was prevented from being able to do. And if you know me, my to-do list is big to me and changing it causes me anxiety.
I remembered then the words from Isaiah 55:8, “neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.” My plans came to nothing other than a few wasted miles and minutes each day. My schedule for my day had a hole placed in it, my plans were changed, my day rearranged.
I’m sure you have had many such days when your plans were totally changed because of something outside of your control. It happens, it happens a lot actually. And for something as small as this it is no big deal.
However sometimes those changes are huge. My neighbors had their whole week’s schedule changed when her sister died on Monday, which is why I was praying with them. Now they have a funeral to plan and attend on Friday. Another person we know just got out of the hospital, a place they had not planned on being for a full week. Our plans change, our agendas get rearranged. And God knows it all before it happens.
When life throws you a curve ball, you need to turn to the Lord and realize He knew it before it happened and that He had a different plan for your day all along. Just go with it. Just go with God’s plan, His way will always prove right in the end.
Pastor Gary
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