February 2014
Monthly Archive
February 24, 2014
Sometimes relationships do not go as we planned. Maybe they were never fruitful, or perhaps they fell apart or, sadley, sometimes our partner passes away before us.
These are hurtFULL, painFULL times. Seasons of our lives when we cry out “WHY?” or simply “HELP!”
1. God never hides reality
a. We will have trouble…frustration…..pain…disappointment
i. Sufferings in our present time
2. There is hope.
a. Hope is not visible
b. Hope is not arrange-able
c. Hope is not touchable
i. Hope is available
1. Maybe not instantly
a. Not on our timetable
b. Patience
2. Through Faith
3. Through Prayer
a. Even when the only prayer we can make is a unintelligible cry
b. The Spirit knows and interceded – prays for us
i. God hears
ii. Hope is a person – Jesus Christ who gave His all so you could have HOPE!
iii. Hope is not free
3. God is near to His hurting children – YOU ARE NOT ALONE
a. Loss cannot separate you from the Love of God you found in Christ Jesus
b. Death cannot separate you from the love of God you found in Christ Jesus
c. Divorce cannot separate you from the love of God you found in Christ Jesus
d. NOTHING IN ALL OF CREATION cannot separate you from the love of God you found in Christ Jesus
4. You still have a purpose and God has a plan for you
a. 1 Corinthians 10:31 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” ESV
b. Jeremiah 29:11-14 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD , plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the LORD,” ESV
February 19, 2014
How valuable are you?
A can of beans may be $0.69 now, but if the trucks stop running they will become real expensive, real quick.
What determines something’s value is what people will pay for it, what people will pay depends on how bad they need it.
If an item is rare or scarce people will pay more, if it is plentiful or easy to obtain they pay less.
Supply and demand: Low supply = high demand = high price
High Supply = Low demand = high price.
Satan had a huge supply of souls – well he had all of them.
The price should have been low….there are trillions of them.
But Jesus wanted to pay the price for ALL OF THEM! All at once. No lay away, no payment plans and no credit.
Jesus wanted to redeem those souls, He paid a very high price for all of them
Romans 3:21-25a “But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.”
Unfortunately, most are unaware of the high price paid for their soul, they don’t believe that such a high price was paid. They don’t believe. It is like paying for a new Ford F-250 in cash then never picking it up. It makes no sense. The price has been paid, take delivery!
You are extremely valuable and important to Jesus.
John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” ESV
The price of your eternity has been paid. Jesus has paid the cost to redeem your soul. Take delivery! Believe.
February 19, 2014
Home Alone! The Empty Nest! Alone Again – Naturally
Surviving life together AFTER the kids are gone
Maybe it is term “Empty Nester” that is troubling?
How about “Parents of free range young adults?”
The good news is that their bedrooms no longer look like a bad episode of “Hoarders!”
- Your kids WILL LEAVE HOME!
- It’s ok..they are supposed to go and begin their own lives….
- Yes Mom – one day your son will fall in love and go live with another woman
- Yes Dad – one day your precious daughter will fall in love and go live with some useless, hippy, no good, rotten boy
- This is natural AND BIBLICAL
- Genesis 2: 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
There are several keys to life with an empty nest:
Keep God first and foremost from dating to marriage to raising kids to the empty nest
- Glorify God in ALL YOU DO ALL THE TIME
- Romans 15: 5 “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:31 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
- Keep God Number One in all things
- Praise God in the good and through the bad
- Keep your spouse second in your heart from dating to marriage to raising kids to the empty nest
- Too many couples lose contact through the years
- Too much time at work
- Too much time with THE KIDS
- Too much time with hobbies or activities
- They come to the empty nest not really knowing the person they are living with anymore
- Be prepared for the empty nest
- There will be a feeling of loss
- There will suddenly be more time available there will suddenly be less noise/activity
- No more playing Taxi Driver
- No more time frustrated over homework, schedules, feeding times or whether or not they have clean underwear on…you know …just in case.
- There will suddenly be more OPPORTUNITY
- To serve God
- To be together
- Time to reconnect
- With each other
- With old friends
- With excitement and adventure
- To refocus on what should have been priorities all along
- The empty nest is a time to LIVE and once again ENJOY your SWEETHEART
And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” Abraham Lincoln
