Thought of the Day !!

A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
1 Corinthians 12:7 (NLT)

Have you ever wondered if you had any particular gifts or talents for ministry? If so, you're not alone. Several people over the course of my ministry have come to me and shared this feeling. As a matter of fact, before I was called into ministry, I felt the same about myself. I'm not good with my hands, so every time we worked on Habitat Houses I was used to clean up. I had a terrible stage fright, so public speaking was out of the question (or so I thought - God showed me I guess). I couldn't play the piano or sing. So I felt pretty down about my giftedness, thinking that He may have simply passed me by when He was passing out talents that could be used for ministry.

But in reality we are all gifted for something. A spiritual gift is given "each" of us. You may have the gift of never meeting a stranger. Maybe your gift is the simple gift of listening to people when others don't have the time or inclination do do so. Maybe your gift is the gift of encouragement or joy or giving or teaching or hospitality or working behind the scenes without recognition. The list can go on and on. But just remember that we all have gifts so that "we can help each other."

Let me end with a story that Pastor Robert Schuller once wrote.

A man once had a dream. In his dream he died and a guide took him to a large room. The room had a very large banquet table filled with different kinds of foods, and there were hungry people seated all around this table. The problem was that they were all five feet apart and pushed away from the table. Their arms were not long enough to reach the table and they were unable to rise from their chairs.

As the man looked more closely, he saw a very large spoon that was five feet long that the people were fighting over. In his dream, he watched with amazement how one person used the spoon to dish up some food and then carefully turned the spoon around toward his mouth with all the food falling off the spoon and onto the floor. Then another person grabbed the spoon but was unable to feed himself because of the length of the spoon.

Then the man turned to the guide and said this must be hell. And the guide said, "You are correct. It is. But this is not the place for you." He then led him to another room exactly like the one he had just seen, with a table and chairs and people five feet apart. This room also had a single spoon, which each person took turns dishing up food from the table and turning and feeding each other. The guide looked at the man and said, "This…is Heaven."

The genius of God's plan is that He created each of us to serve one another so that each would be served, and each would be fulfilled by serving.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.
Proverbs 13:3 (NIV)

What comes out of our mouths cannot be put back in. What we say can heal or increase goodness. But it can also ruin relationships. Be careful of what you say and how you say it, for you never know the lasting effects.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)

Sometimes it can feel very difficult to persevere. The day got a rotten start. Bad news came at some point in the day. Drowsiness comes to us after a carb-filled lunch. The workday ends with us having to run errands and finally get home to a messy house. I don't know what all your day might be like at times. But I know that things happen during a normal week that can bring us down and exhaust us. So I can understand how it can feel difficult to persevere.

Two things come to mind. One is that we're not alone. The saints have gone before us and persevered the same (and even worse). If they can do it, we can too. They weren't super-human. They were people just like you and me. The second thing that comes to my mind is how they did it. They did it by seeking solace in reading God's Word, by speaking to Him and allowing Jesus (through the power of the Holy Spirit) to comfort their hearts.

With Christ comes a perseverance that is unexplainable because of the peace that he gives that passes all understanding. Take Christ with you today, and bring the Scriptures with you as well. When all seems lost, dive into them both and find your peace and your perseverance.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

At dawn [Jesus] appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
John 8:2-11 (TNIV)

The biblical word for cheating on one's wife or husband is adultery. And it's frowned on heavily by God. As a matter of fact, the prohibition of it made it into the Ten Commandments (number 7). The reason God abhors it so much is that it ruins the relationship between a man and a woman. And God's greatest desire is for us to have relationships…relationships with each other and with Him.

In our Scripture reading the Pharisees bring a woman who has been caught in the act of adultery to Jesus and ask him point blank…what do you say that we should do with her? On one hand, the Law of Moses says to stone her. On the other hand, Roman law prevented this kind of punishment.

And then there's the fact that if he said, "Let her go", the Pharisees could say that he didn't adhere to Jewish Law. Of course if he said to stone her, he would go against everything he taught.

What was he to do? He simply wrote in the dirt (maybe the question – where's the man). And when pressed, he gave an answer that's like one of those great lines from an old movie. One that will last forever in people's memories…kind of like Frankly my dear Scarlet…or I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto…or of all the gin joints in all the…. He said, "He that is without sin cast the first stone." And that line has been repeated over and over through the centuries.

Wow! What could they do? Uhhhh Ummm! Can you imagine them looking at each other. "You do it. No, you do it." Then one by one, beginning with the oldest (probably because they were the wisest) they dropped their deadly weapons and slunk away. Even they weren't hypocritical enough to claim that any of them were without sin.

When all the Pharisees were gone, Jesus asked the woman, "Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?" "No", she replied. And then we hear those wonderful words of grace, "Neither do I. Go and sin no more."

The original Greek means that Jesus deferred judgment. He didn't say to her, "Forget it. It's no big deal." What he meant was: "I am not going to pass judgment on you now. Go out and live a different life and do what you can to become a different person."

In a round about way, isn't that what he's told you before? I know I've heard those words before. He says to us, I don't condemn you. Instead, I forgive you. Now, I want you to change and try to become the person you're meant to be. At that point...it's up to us.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:17 (NLT)

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us that he didn't come into this world to condemn it, but instead to save it. He wasn't a finger-pointing, judgmental kind of person. He didn't come to strictly enforce the law. But instead, according to Scripture, he came to fulfill it.

In John 1:17 we see that "The law was given through Moses, but God's unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ." Through this love and faithfulness comes forgiveness. And Jesus was not one to judge, but one to forgive. He was not one to speak harmful words to us sinners, but one to speak words of love. He was not one to point fingers (except to those authorities that were misrepresenting his Father's law), but one to embrace those who were unembraceable to others.

Much too often in today's world, we Christians forget these facts about Jesus. And forget that we're supposed to be like Jesus in these areas.

Let us each have a day of love and forgiveness instead of one of grudges and finger pointing.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Ephesians 2:8-10 (NRSV)

We see here that nothing we can do can save us, so serving God is not about salvation. We're not a works righteous religion like Judaism, which teaches that salvation is judged by our behavior and keeping specific laws. Instead, we believe that we receive salvation through our faith, and that our behavior changes due to our faith.

So we don't serve God to be saved. We serve God because that's what we were created to do. And because we were created for this purpose, that's how we'll find fulfillment.

We are meant to be used. Paul wrote that we were created for the good works that God prepared ahead of time for us so that our lives could be fulfilling. How fulfilling can it be to spend our lives never doing what we were created for in the first place?

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.
Romans 1:16 (NIV)

The gospel is the "good news" of Jesus Christ and is available to everyone everywhere. Paul was not ashamed to speak these words and act on these words. He was not ashamed to share his faith in every aspect of his life. It meant that much to him.

As Christians we can become intimidated sometimes by our surroundings (who we're with, where we're at, etc.). We can become more like the people around us expect us to be than how Christ would have us be. In doing so we are tempted to conform to the world around us instead of transforming it with the living Word of the gospel. In essence, we become embarrassed to speak out or bring up the name of Jesus. When this happens, we have become "ashamed of the gospel".

God knows how many times we've failed to share the good news of Christ when He offered us an opportunity to do so. He also knows that we can repent by listening intently to Him and following His guidance when the times become available to us to share His Son.

Pray that God would use you and me to share the gospel so that when we meet Him we can echo the words of Paul, who said, "I am not ashamed."

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
Psalm 5:11 (NIV)

When things are getting hard to handle in life, we can take our refuge in Jesus. He told us to bring our burdens to him, and the Psalmist tells us that when we take refuge in our God we can be made glad. I wish I could say that whenever a personal crisis comes up that you could take the burden to Jesus and he would snap his fingers and the pain would go away. But on the other hand I guess I'm not glad. You see, God knows better than me. And even though that's what I would like, He takes care of me in a different way.

You can spoil children by giving him or her everything they want and taking everything bad out of their lives. But what kind of person will that child grow up to be. No...God knows what's best for us, and He doesn't allow anything to come our way that we cannot handle. So we are taught to bring our burdens to Him and take refuge in Him and He will hold us up when we can't stand on our own two feet. He will carry us when we don't want to walk any further. He makes us stronger for allowing us struggle through the hard situations of our lives, all the while walking right next to us. And He makes us better children for it. Thanks be to God. Amen.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
Matthew 5:42 (ESV)

A story I found somewhere and once used in a sermon goes like this:

There once was a monk who found a precious jewel. The monk was a traveler, and during one of his travels, he met a man. The man had no food and asked the monk for some. The monk, happy to share with the hungry man, opened his bag to get some provisions.

Upon opening the bag, the man saw the jewel. On impulse the man asked the monk if he could have it. Amazingly, the monk gave the precious stone to the man.

The traveler departed quickly, overjoyed with his new possession. However, a few days later, he came back searching for the monk. He returned the stone to the monk and made a request: "Please give me something more valuable, more precious than this jewel. Please give me that which enabled you to give it to me."

A person's earthly instincts would be to keep the jewel, yet a person's spiritual insight tells him or her that the jewel is not as important as another human being.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

Let me hear of your unfailing love to me in the morning, for I am trusting you [God]. Show me where to walk, for I have come to you in prayer.
Psalm 143:8 (NLT)

Some mornings I receive all kinds of good news. And then there are those where it seems everything is bad. But every morning I yearn to hear of God's unfailing love.

God will share His love with everyone who is willing to accept it. And the more time you spend with Him, the more opportunities you receive to experience this love.

The fact is that bad things are going to happen. Pray and ask God to help you through them, therefore experiencing His love. There will also be good days with great news or experiences. Pray and give thanks for being able to experience His love in these times too. Sooner or later, you will find that the joy comes just from being with your Father in Heaven. And I think that's His goal.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

[Jesus says,] "Keep alert and pray -- otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing, the body is weak."
Matthew 26:41 (NLT)

I believe we fight more demons than we're aware of. So "Keep alert and pray". Otherwise you may slowly fall into Satan's trap, waking up one morning to realize that you're not the same kind of person you once were. The key is to stay focussed on God. If we don't do that, the devil will get our attention without us even realizing it. He's good at that, so be careful. Be alert.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

[Jesus says,] "So I tell you, don't worry about everyday life -- whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn't life consist of more than food and clothing? Look at the birds. They don't need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are."
Matthew 6:25-26 (NLT)

Wouldn't it be great to be able to come to a point in our lives where nothing worried us? I know I'm not there. I worry myself silly sometimes. I think I get it from my grandmother. She always worried; not about money or clothes or food to eat. She worried about me. She was always asking if I'd been eating or if I had enough money. And of course then she'd hand me some money to make sure I had enough cash for gas.

Yeah, my grandmother did what a lot of good grandparents and parents do. She worried about me. And today I worry. I don't worry about about money or food or drink or clothes. Life really does consist of more than those things. I worry about making good decisions. I worry about missing a possible ministry opportunity. I worry about Michelle when she drives four hours home.

So I guess what I'm saying is that it's hard not to worry. But I think Jesus was more concerned with us having an understanding that God takes care of us. He loves us so much that He provides plenty in this world for all to be fed and clothed.

We may never completely quit worrying about everything. But the simple understanding that God is in ultimate control and that He will provide for those who love Him and submit to His ways should keep us from worrying ourselves to death. And without that worry, we can be better stewards of the gifts that He gives us.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)

The love of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). How in the world can we grasp something so vast. It would be like driving out to the ocean and trying to see the other side. I would be like trying to explain to a child just how far a star is away. For God's love surpasses knowledge.

Go today in the knowledge that God's love for you is wider, higher and deeper than anything you can ever imagine. Live in that love. Speak of that love. Share a small portion of that love.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

'This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'
Zechariah 7:9-10 (NIV)

As we go about our day, lets ask ourselves, "Am I being just, merciful and compassionate to all those I meet today? Have I any evil feelings in my heart towards anybody else?"

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

Do you still think it's enough just to believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror! Fool! When will you ever learn that faith that does not result in good deeds is useless?
James 2:19-20 (NLT)

It's not that we have to do good deeds (or Christian acts) to be saved. There's not enough good acts in the world to make us worthy of what God is offering to us free of charge. Instead, to be saved we must have faith in God's Son Jesus, therefore making him our Lord and Savior. But when we do this, our good works will naturally follow. And if they don't, we need to question our faith. This is because true faith produces good deeds.

So set your faith in Christ as Lord and Savior and find yourself becoming a better person by the natural giving of yourself.

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
Hebrews 10:24 (NIV)

How might we promote loving each other and doing good deeds today?

In the love of Christ,
greg

Thought of the Day !!

By the grace given me I say to everyone of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Romans 12:3 (NIV)

These are good words to live by. Today I encourage you to think about your words, your actions and your motives. Judge yourself on whether you are living out the day in humility or pride. As the day ends ask yourself if the decisions you made today were selfish or with others in mind. And then let the answers today guide how you live out your tomorrow.

In the love of Christ,
greg