Category Archives: Messages

Peaceful Heart – Healthy Body

Many people spend a tremendous amount of time and money to maintain their health, but miss one of the keys God’s provides for health.
Proverbs 14:30 says,  “A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body  jealousy is like cancer in the bones.”
Having a peaceful, low stress demeanor is physically good for us.
Though it is easy to say, being at peace is not always easy to turn on.  I recently heard a practice that helps.  Each morning take a few minutes to relax with several long deep breaths, then think intently about three things for which you are grateful.  Try to physically feel the gratitude for these things.  It is very difficult to be envious, bitter or angry when you are focusing intently on being grateful.
Dear Lord, you have provided the instruction manual for our lives, that you created, in the Bible.  Help us find your wisdom there.  Be with us and help us work on a peaceful heart, to help us have a healthy body, to your glory.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.
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Enjoy Your Lot

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We have all seen examples of the tragic early deaths of celebrities and other successful people who seemed to have everything.  Solomon writes about this in Ecclesiastes 6:2, “God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn’t give them the chance to enjoy these things.”
It is not that being successful or wealthy is wrong, but as we have seen on many occasions, those things do not provide happiness.
He says in Ecclesiastes 5:19, “And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God.  God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past.”
God has each of us where we are for a reason.  Sure it would be great to have lots of money and success, but we need to trust that God has a plan for us, and enjoy what we have, while waiting, with faith, for what we would like.
Dear Lord, it is in our nature to want more, but help us enjoy our lives and trust that you love us, and have us where we are for your reasons.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

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What Can You Accomplish?

Being a business and aviation enthusiast, I recently watched a video of a successful real estate business man, who began with nothing, take delivery of his new Gulfstream G550 jet. ($50 million price tag, if you are curious) When walking around it, he mentioned that, when younger, he couldn’t even dream big enough to believe in this level of financial success. Similarly, before his first Super Bowl game, do you think Tom Brady could have imagined he would lead his team to six Super Bowl wins? Do you think Mother Theresa ever thought she would impact the entire world with her work? Or do you think, when he was a young priest in Argentina, Pope Francis could have imagined ever becoming Pope?

Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:20 that we have no concept of what God can do, writing, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

The King James Version uses the description “exceeding abundantly above” rather than “infinitely more”. If you are interested, you can see how this was translated from the original Greek with this link.

My interpretation of this text is, we cannot even imagine what God is capable of doing in our world and our lives. We should take off the limits, and ask God for the things we need and want, and use them to bring glory to Him.

Dear Lord, help us remember, and believe, that you have complete power and authority over all things, and can accomplish much much more that we can imagine. Let us use all you provide to bring the glory to you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Love Expels Fear

I have this thought, occasionally, which creates a bit of anxiety. Maybe you do too, “I trust God and his plans, but what if his plans include bad things that I fear, even though those bad things may have a purpose I cannot understand.”

To overcome this fear, I try to remember that God loves me, and all of His children, so much more than we can imagine.

John writes in 1 John 4:16-18, “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” and in verse 18, “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.”

And Paul writes in Ephesians 3:16-18, “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

Without a doubt we will experience difficulty, sorrow and uncertainty, but we can always return to the knowledge that God loves us and we can expel our fear with this knowledge.

Dear Lord, what peace it provides to know that you love us beyond our understanding. Help us overcome our fear with this peace and realize the fullness of life and power that you promise. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Check Your Premises

John 7 has an account of Jesus responding to criticism from the Jewish leaders who said it was wrong of him to heal a man on the Sabbath day. The Jews had religious laws that no work was allowed on the Sabbath day, which originated with the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy.

Jesus tells them in John 7:24, “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” I believe he was telling them that they were misinterpreting the point of the commandment. God gave them the rules, or commandments, but they had to interpret them and put them in practice.

We too must interpret God’s direction as provided to us in the Bible. This requires us to actively use the mind God gave us to “look below the surface,” as Jesus tells us. I like the description of “checking our premises.” Our premises are our assumptions and pre-conceived ideas that we all have and use to interpret things around us.

We need to take some time to ask ourselves where the authority for those pre-conceived ideas came from. If we look beneath the surface and find that our premises do not conform to the two “greatest commandments” from Matthew 22, “love God, and love our neighbor” then we may need to change our thinking.

Dear Lord, we all struggle with the conflict between our wants and pride and your will. Help us regularly check our premises so we can judge correctly. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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