Proverbs 28:19 He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who
chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.
Years ago, I used to watch a TV show called
“My World and Welcome to It,” starring William Windom, one of my favorite
American actors. Windom played a cartoonist called John Monroe and the
storylines of each episode were crafted around short stories written by
American humorist and cartoonist James Thurber. In fact, it was James Thurber’s
cartoons that peaked my interest in drawing.
In the show, John Monroe often resorted to
fantasy and created cartoons in his head to deal with the issues and problems
he was facing. It was a fascinating way to bring solutions to his family’s
difficulties and everything was usually neatly resolved by the end of the
30-minute show. It was pure escapism and moralistic entertainment, but it was
only comedic drama and could not be counted upon as a real way of dealing with
personal issues or family problems.
The gift of imagination that God has given each
of us can be a blessing or a disappointment. We can fantasize about being
successful, rich, and famous; we can even draw on paper or make cartoons in our
heads about experiencing health, wealth, and power, but unless we do something
about achieving those goals, they are just mere fantasies and unfulfilled
dreams that disappear into thin air.
It's the same with our faith. Every day, we
are given a new opportunity to do something better with our lives and make
something beautiful for God. The potential is there and the dreams for doing
good are in our hearts and on our minds, but do we have the resolve to follow
through and fulfill them? As Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green
Bay Packers once said: “The difference between a successful person
and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a
lack of will.”
So, the challenge for us today is this: will
we work more with our faith and share Christ’s love, or just dream and fantasize
about it?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You fully know what our
life’s potential is. There are things that You would have us accomplish this
week for Your Kingdom. Help us to focus on what we need to do to fulfill the
tasks of faith You constantly set before us. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.
Pastor
John
Psalm
55:22 Cast your cares on the Lord and God will sustain you;
The Lord will never let the righteous be shaken. (NIV)
Everybody
I know has a care, worry, anxiety, or burden that they carry each day. Being
human, we experience a lot of stress trying to endure these critical times.
Sometimes our cares are about family or friends who are ill, injured, or having
issues. Other times, our burdens are for the world we live in, because of wars,
famines, and natural disasters.
Today’s
highlighted Bible verse reminds people of faith that God helps us to endure
each day, each crisis, and each critical time. We are not left on our own or
abandoned to the whims of capricious leaders or unexpected events. God’s
purpose for the world cannot be thwarted; God’s justice in the world will
prevail. As the old saying goes, “Kingdoms may rise and leaders may fall,
but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
Whatever
you are currently experiencing or going through, please know that God is
mindful of what’s happening and can still be relied upon in the midst of your
troubles, worries, and problems. As the wise psalmist wrote long ago, “Cast
your cares on God and the Lord will sustain you.”
Point
to ponder: What burdens am I carrying right now? Am I willing to share them and
fully hand them over to God?
Prayer:
Lord God, You know everything about us – our weaknesses and worries, our
concerns and circumstances, our anxieties and issues. Help us to place them, as
well as ourselves, into Your loving hands. In Christ’s Name, we pray. Amen.
John
8:31-32 To those who had previously believed Him, Jesus said, “If you hold
to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the
truth, and the truth will set you free.” (NIV)
Jesus
faced a lot of opposition throughout His ministry, especially from some of His
earliest followers who eventually decided to walk away from Him. In doing so,
they rejected His teaching which was based on truth and love, and then they fiercely
confronted Him with their doubts about His character, as well as their own retrenched
beliefs.
Christ’s
truth challenged His people, just as it still does for all who call themselves
Christians today. He never said that believing in Him or following His way was
going to be easy, but He did insist that what He was preaching and teaching was
the God-given truth. People back then relied on many of their traditions and
sacred texts to formulate their own ideas about what was important and true.
When Jesus brought a new understanding of what those traditions and texts really
meant, His ideas were initially treated as being novel and inventive, but
eventually they were seen as being too radical and dangerous for regular
religious people.
We are
still faced with the same challenges, especially in our truth-forsaken society
which relies more on what we feel rather than what is factual. A culture which
insists that what people feel to be true as more important than
what is actually true, can be easily manipulated by charlatans and liars,
conmen and fanatics. Such a society enslaves itself to the whims and wiles of
totalitarian leaders, as well as their henchmen and women, whose only purpose
is to increase their power by spreading lies, causing chaos, creating division,
and fomenting fear. This is why Jesus taught both His supporters and opponents
that knowing the truth was essential to their freedom – lies took away their
liberty whereas the truth kept them free.
Point
to ponder: How does Christ’s truth constantly challenge me?
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life which we all should seek
and emulate. Forgive us for being duped by leaders who lie. Help us to follow
and practice Your teaching which counters fear with faith and lies with love.
In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.
John
Stuart is a Scottish Presbyterian pastor now living in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Psalm
67:4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples
with equity and guide the nations of the earth.
There is a
lot of fabricated controversy surrounding the term DEI which stands for
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Some folks get really incensed when they see
those letters or feel that their white privileged position is threatened simply
because others who are different are getting more opportunities to better their
lives. Rather than allow others the chance to raise themselves up from poverty,
depravity, and ignorance, those who are angry about DEI are trying to eradicate
it entirely to secure their own entitled position.
‘Equity’
is a Biblical word and reveals to us that our Creator – who loves the diversity
of people and included the whole world in the plan of salvation – treats us not
just equally, but with equity which means that when it comes to judging human
beings, God takes their backgrounds and circumstances into account. If God was
to purely treat us on an equal basis, then those with privilege, power, and
prestige would have an advantage. Equity is why Christ sees the poor widow’s
two pennies as being infinitely of more worth in the Temple offering than the pre-calculated,
restricted, and designated portions which the rich and powerful gave.
So, for
those of you who are furious about DEI and seek to destroy it, let me seriously
caution you: God created and still sustains a diverse world which
the Lord rules with equity and includes everyone in everlasting love. Are you
going to foolishly try to take that away from God as well? By the way, if you
need an easy reminder, the old Latin phrase for ‘the image of God’ which we all
have been graciously given, is ‘Imago DEI.’
Point
to ponder: Why did God make such a diverse world? How inclusive is God’s love?
Prayer:
Lord God, You created a wonderful world full of diverse beings, made in Your
image and sustained by Your love. Help us to let go of greed and resentment,
jealousy and bigotry which have no place under Your domain, Your sovereignty,
Your rule. In Christ’s Name, we pray. Amen
John
Stuart is a retired Scottish pastor now living in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Midweek
Message – Winging It
Psalm
57:1 Have mercy on me, O God, have
mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow
of your wings until the disaster has passed.
I can
remember my old pastor preaching part of this psalm to me when I was about
twelve years old. It left me confused, not because of what he said, which was
all about security and refuge in God, but because of the mistaken image that I had
concocted from what the psalmist wrote. You see I tried to picture God having
wings, but I couldn’t decide whether they were the soft, white wings like a
dove, or the mighty, golden wings of an eagle.
My problem
arose because I was trying to interpret the Bible verse literally. I got so
hung up on picturing g the image that I missed what was really important in the
psalm – that of knowing God as my refuge in times of trouble.
I also
fell for the same mistake when I was at seminary. This time it wasn’t the wings
that caused my confusion, it was the shadow of the wings. I reasoned that in
order for a shadow to be produced, light has to be behind and above the object
in order to cast it on the ground. “How could anything be above and behind
God?” I argued. Again, I was taking the text too literally and just using it
for the sake of debating with my professors and peers.
The Bible
helps us to understand about who God is and how He intervenes in our lives. However,
if we take the scriptures too literally, as in the case of this image, then we will
miss the point altogether. The Bible guides us towards God and reveals to us
His plan of salvation through Christ. It is sacred and gives us a better
understanding of the holiness, power, and grace of God, but the Bible is not
meant to be fanatically idolized or worshiped like God.
Point
to ponder: What biblical images of God mean something special to me?
Prayer: Lord God, when we take refuge in the shadow of
Your wings, we know that it means we can find a haven and sanctuary in You. As
we rely upon You for everything in our lives, encourage us to read more from
the Bible, so that we can learn more about You in order to faithfully and
thankfully worship You. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.
John
Stuart is a Scottish Presbyterian pastor now living in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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