Child of the King

Do you have a lot of stuff? All the cupboards and drawers and dressers and closets seemed to be bursting at the seams. We didn’t plan it this way, it just seemed to happen. Now, I’m not talking about taking this to the extreme, it just seemed to accumulate. Right?

Recently after dropping a few pounds I noticed there was a lot of clothes that didn’t fit anymore. Some of it I took to the tailors and he took them in. Thought it was fine until I noticed it wasn’t fitting the same. So, I put them away, just in case… After a while the realization came that they are not needed anymore and they went to the Salvation Army Store. Other clothes too large went to a good friend. Just the other day, I found a couple of items that were hiding on me and now they are going this week.

Did you know we all have things to give away but don’t, because, ‘it’s mine’. The most precious possession we have we tenaciously want to hold on to. But it is the best thing we can give away. What is it, it’s your faith in Jesus Christ. We didn’t receive Christ to hold on to. It’s like a parent’s love, no matter how many children you have, they all receive the same amount of love. There is enough for everyone in this world. So, when you get it, give it away and more love will come to you. We need to give Jesus away to others who need Him as much as we did. Maybe that is why God told us, we are adopted by Him and become a child of the King.

Something to think about.

Rob

Sleep?

This morning I just felt like staying in bed. Most ministers wake up Monday morning and want to resign. It’s true. Many of them put so much into Sunday that when Monday morning comes along, they are tired and just want to walk away. That is why most ministers take Monday off.

Well, that is not why I wanted to stay in bed today. August and September are always busy. It is that time of year when there is just so much to get ready for a new year and a new season and so many people returning to church to begin all that is going to happen in the next ten months. I get excited at this time of year. There are so many possibilities. That is why I never take holidays in the summer.

The line is true; ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’.  Now, the reason I’m interested in staying in bed this morning is, I would just like to take a day off and, well, try to sleep in. Probably never happen but that is alright, at least I can think about it. If you think about it, we all need a day off. Someone once asked me if I ever take a Sunday off of church. Don’t anyone be surprised, yes I do. Not very often but I do. 

Some of you take a day off now and again, and that is okay as well. There are two things to remember about this issue. 1. The bible tells us God never slumbers now sleeps. That’s good to know 2. We are not God. And even though He never slumbers nor sleeps, on the seventh day of creation, He rested.  If He is up all night, we can rest assured He watches over us. 

Go ahead; sleep in sometime when you can. Oh, one more thing, never neglect getting together and worship God.

Something to think about.

Marking To Remember

I was having a wonderful conversation recently that took me back to my early school days. It’s interesting how a conversation transport you back to an early long gone time. I was hearing how they were not able to remember too much of what they read. I had the same problem in school. Read a book and after a short time, remembered very little about the story other than some details that perked my interest. Everything else disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

Many of you know, I’m not the best person to remember names. Even today, when I’m reading I have a tendency to skip over names. I’m reading a great ministry book right now but I couldn’t tell you who wrote it. Just looked, it’s Thom Schultz. From this I probably will only remember the Thom due to this different way of spelling his name.

This gets me back to comprehending. Over all these year I have developed a way of helping my memory. Doesn’t always help but it does something more than what’s been happening for almost 60years. I carry a highlighter. Yes, as I’m reading, I mark lines, phrases and even complete paragraphs so, when I do forget, the emphasis on ‘do’ I can go back and flip through the pages looking for the highlighted words.

Here is the thing, if we read our bible and never highlight or underline or put dates on the page, we lose what God is telling us at the time. I do not have one bible that I have used that doesn’t have one or all of these things in it. Years later as I read a passage again, I’m reminded of what God had to say way back when and in doing so; I relearn something I should never forget.

David said it; “Oh, how I love your (word) law! I meditate on it all day long.” So, go ahead and mark up your bibles. When you do, you will remember those days in your life when God walked with you and talked with you.

Something to think about

Rob

History is His-story

Tuesday was THE day. Yes it was.  For one group of people in our neighbourhood it was a great day. And that would be the parents and care givers. After two months of trying to think of things for the children to do, no more thinking is needed. Off they go, all shined up and. .  .

That leads to the second group. They are the teachers who love what they do and look forward to the first week of Sept. Then there is the third group. The children themselves are both looking forward to school and getting to see all their school friends and new teachers, or they are not looking forward so much. Some kids don’t just get it like others. They are not looking at school as a good thing. Maybe because of the way they think negatively of school it becomes a negative, who knows.

Personally I liked school but, and didn’t you always know there’s a ‘but’ in there somewhere, I was bored. Yes, that’s right. I was a very different kid. I wanted to learn, learn and learn. I didn’t want to go over and over the same thing time and time again so I could get a good mark. Ie. I knew who Sir John A. was. They told us details about him and that was good but why did I have to go back over it until I could, when prompted, put the information down correctly on a sheet of paper? Anybody know who Alexander Mackenzie is?

It wasn’t until I arrived in grade six that it all changed. My teacher that year saw how bored I was and made a game out of it. He told me, if, if I got all my assigned stuff done I could take the free time to look into something that I really was excited about. It transformed my school years. Got to love it so much I ended up with twenty six years of education.

Interestingly, I have had the same amazing experience as I have learned all that it means to be a follower of Christ. It’s reading the bible over and over and in my spare time, looking for how the experiences of all those Bible characters relate to my own personal spiritual journey. It’s going beyond the story and learning about the God behind the story, the God who was and is in all of our journeys.

Something to think about.

Rob