Be Prepared

The message given on Sunday night, March 27, 2022 in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are 2 Timothy 3:14--4:5.

            The Bible.  The inspired word of God.  God’s message to human beings.  The most important book in all of Christianity.  Some would say the most important book in history.

            How many of us ever read it?

            Now, don’t take that as an implied blanket criticism.  I know that there are many people here who do read the Bible.  Some read it faithfully every day.  Some have read it all the way through, front to back, and some have even done so more than once.  Others, I know, read the Bible every day as part of a daily devotional time.  All of that is wonderful, and I applaud you for it.  But there are others of us who don’t read the Bible regularly.  Some of us don’t read the Bible at all.  

            That’s too bad.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying God’s going to send you to hell for it or anything.  We’re saved by our faith in Jesus Christ and by God’s love and grace and mercy.  We are not commanded to be Bible scholars.  Nowhere in the gospels is Jesus quoted as saying, “Go and memorize the Bible.”  

            But Jesus did say to go and make disciples.  And if we’re going to do that effectively, we need to know what we’re talking about.  We need to know what Jesus said and what he did.  We need to know about God the Father.  And one of the best ways, maybe the best way, we can learn that is to read the Bible.

            The Apostle Paul, writing to his friend Timothy, told him to go and preach the word.  But the very next words he told Timothy, after telling him to preach the word, are these:  “be prepared”.

            You see, no matter how much you and I may want to serve God and go and make disciples, we’re not going to do a very good job of it if we’re not prepared to do it.  And one of the best ways to be prepared is to read the Bible.  

Again, I’m not saying you have to have the Bible memorized.  But Paul does emphasize that knowing the Bible is important.  Not only does he say that “all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.”  He also says that we need to know it “so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped.”  

It’s like anything else in life:  we’ve got to know what we’re doing and how to do it to do it well.  No matter how much we may want to do something, if we’re not prepared ahead of time, if we have not done the things we need to do to get ready to do it, we’re not going to do it very well.  That’s true of sports or music or teaching or farming or construction or anything else.  It’s true of preaching, too.  If we’re not prepared to do something, we’re just not going to do it very well no matter how much we wish we could.  And again, one of the best ways to be prepared to talk about God is to read the Bible.

But as important as the Bible is, it’s not the only way for us to be prepared to talk about God.  In telling Timothy to be prepared, Paul says this:  “Be prepared in season and out of season.”

In other words, we need to be prepared to talk about God all the time.  Not just in church.  Not just when we’re in a Bible study.  Not just when we’re in a religious setting.  All the time.  When we’re in the grocery store.  When we’re in the cafe.  When we’re at the convenience store.  When we’re at work.  When we’re at school.  When we’re in the doctor’s office.  We need to be prepared to talk about God all the time.

Now, I did not say “talk about God all the time.”  I said, “Be prepared to talk about God all the time.”  We don’t want to come across as self-righteous or arrogant or anything like that.  But in our ordinary conversations with people, chances will come up to talk about God.  We may not have to go into great detail.  It may be as simple as someone telling you they have a problem and saying, “I’ll pray for you.”  It may be as simple as telling someone “Have a blessed day.”  

Or, it may be that we will have a chance to go deeper, that we will have a chance to talk about what our faith does for us.  Maybe we’ll have the chance to talk about how our faith helps us through a tough situation, or calms us down when we’re scared, or helps us keep going when we’re discouraged.  It all depends on the situation.  But the point is that we’ll miss those chances to talk about God if we’re not ready to do it.  We need to always have in the back of our mind that a chance may come up to talk about God.  We need to look for that chance, and be ready to take it when it comes.

And I want to make clear that I’m not putting myself forward as your role model for this.  I need to work on this, too.  And I also understand that it may be a little easier for me, simply because I’m a pastor and so people kind of expect me to talk about God.  But this is not something for just pastors to do.  It’s something for all of us to do, and I suspect most of us--again including me--need to work on it.  We all need to do more to be prepared to talk about God, so we can see the chances God puts in front of us and take advantage of them when they come.

There’s another way we need to be prepared, too.  Paul tells Timothy to go ahead and “correct, rebuke, and encourage,” but he says one more thing about that.  He tells Timothy to do this “with great patience.”  

In other words, we need to be prepared for people to not accept what we say.  Some will, of course.  There are people who will be open to us talking about God.  In fact, there are people who will be happy to hear us talking about God.  And there will be others who will probably not be open to it or happy about it, but will tolerate us and won’t be upset.

But there are people who don’t want to hear about God.  In our area, there are probably not as many as there are in some places, but they’re still around.  And so, we need to be patient.  

What does that mean?  Well, for one thing, it means we need to not get upset with someone if they’re not interested in hearing what we have to say.  We need to keep treating them with respect and love, because after all, Paul tells us in First Corinthians Thirteen that love is patient.  What else does it mean?  Well, it may mean that we need to explain things better.  It may mean that we need to back off for a while, and come back to the subject of God at a better time.  It may mean that we need to do a better job of showing love to them, so they’ll be more open to hearing what we have to say.  But if we’re prepared for someone to not be interested, we won’t be discouraged if that’s the reaction we’ll get.  We’ll be able to be patient.

But Paul says something else, too.  He says that, no matter prepared we are, no matter how much we read the Bible, no matter how much we look for chances to talk about God, no matter how patient we are, there are people who simply will refuse to listen.  He says, “The time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires...they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

In other words, there are people we simply will not be able to reach.  It’s just the way it is.  I mean, even Jesus could not reach everyone.  When Jesus was on earth there were plenty of people who heard him, live and in person, and turned away.  They were not interested.  He was not saying what they wanted to hear, and they would not open their minds and hearts to listen.  If even Jesus himself could not reach everyone, you and I cannot expect to do it.  It’s just not possible. 

But Paul tells Timothy, and us, something else, too.  He tells us not to let the fact that we cannot reach everyone discourage us.  He says, “keep your head in all situations...do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”  In other words, keep trying.  No matter what happens, no matter what the reaction to you is, keep trying.  Don’t give up.  Yes, there will be people we cannot reach, but there will be people we can reach, too.  Keep working.  Keep trying.  Keep doing the work of God.  We won’t be able to succeed all the time, but we will succeed sometimes.  With God’s help, we will succeed.

And remember, God does not measure success the way we do, anyway.  God is not keeping score, giving us a rating for how many people we’ve brought to the Lord.  What God is interested in is this:  are we faithful?  Are we doing our best to serve God?  Are we doing our best to show love to God?  Are we doing our best to show love to others?  If we’re doing those things to the best of our ability--realizing that we are imperfect human beings and will make mistakes sometimes--but if we’re doing those things to the best of our ability, then we will have succeeded in God’s eyes, regardless of what our results may be on earth.

You and I are called to spread the gospel.  If we’re going to do that, we need to be prepared.  We need to know what the Bible says about Jesus and about God.  We need to be ready to take advantage of chances to talk about God, whenever and wherever they come up.  We need to be patient if people are not ready to listen to what we have to say.  And we need not get discouraged if we run into people who simply do not want to hear what we have to say.

God will be with us.  If we’re prepared, if we’re faithful, and if we do our best to serve God and love God, God will bless us.  And we will succeed in God’s eyes, no matter what the result is on earth.

 

Get Closer

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, March 27, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 21:18-22.

As you noticed, our Bible reading for today was very short.  Only five verses.  But of course God can say a lot in just a few words.  Even though this a short reading, there’s a lot in there to make us think.

            It starts out with Jesus walking along and getting hungry.  He sees a fig tree and goes over to get some figs to eat, but there are no figs on the tree.  So Jesus curses it.  He says to the tree, “May you never bear fruit again!”  And the tree immediately withers.

We’re told that the disciples the asked, “How did the tree wither so quickly?”  Frankly, that’s not the question I would’ve asked.  It’s not a bad question, especially if we don’t really quite realize who Jesus is.  But if we accept that Jesus is the divine Son of God, then we know how the tree withered so quickly.  It withered quickly because Jesus told it to.  Jesus had divine power.  He could do stuff like that.  It’s pretty much that simple.

            But the more interesting question, as it often is, is “Why?”  Why would Jesus do that?  Why would Jesus curse this poor, innocent fig tree, which had done nothing to hurt him other than that Jesus wanted figs and it did not have any?  What’s the point of that?

            Well, we’ll come back to that.  Next, we’re told Jesus’ answer to the disciples’ question of how the tree withered so quickly.  He says, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea’, and it will be done.  If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

            That’s one of those verses we struggle with.  I do, anyway.  We don’t think it can possibly be taken literally.  I mean, most of us don’t really believe that anyone, just through prayer, could physically make a mountain fall into the sea, no matter how much faith we have.  After all, have you ever known anyone who could do that?  Have you ever heard of anyone who could do it?  Jesus could have, because again, he’s the divine Son of God, but who else?  I mean, even if we grant that it would take an awful lot of faith to do something like this, there has to be somebody, once in a while, who has that kind of faith, right?  So if even they cannot make this happen, it must not be meant to be taken literally.

            But on the other hand, if we don’t take it literally, how do we take it and still do justice to the actual words we’re told Jesus said?  If we put any qualifications on Jesus’ statement, if we put any limitations on it, we’re adding words that Jesus did not say.  Jesus did not put qualifications or limitations on his statement.  So, if we don’t take what Jesus said literally, but yet we don’t want to add our own words to what Jesus said, what do we do with this?            

And now you see why we’re only dealing with five verses today.  There’s more than enough in those five verses for a sermon, or even several sermons.

            So let’s look at it all.  Why are these five verses in the Bible?  What are we supposed to learn from them?

Well, let’s think about the fig tree first.  What’s the purpose of a fig tree?  Well, it’s to produce figs, right?  An apple tree produces apples, a peach tree produces peaches, a fig tree produces figs.  It’s not there to be a shade tree, and it’s not there to look pretty.  A fig tree has one job and one job only:  to produce figs.  That’s the sole purpose that a fig tree has in life.

            Therefore, a fig tree that does not produce figs is not doing its job.  A fig tree that does not produce figs has no purpose.  A fig tree that does not produce figs has no reason to exist any more.  So, Jesus curses the fig tree and it withers.  But really, in a sense, the tree had withered before Jesus got there, because it no longer served the purpose for which God had created it.

            So what does that have to do with what Jesus says next?  How does it relate to what Jesus said about how if our faith is strong enough, we’ll get whatever we ask for in prayer?

            Well, this is not the only time Jesus used trees to make a point.  Earlier in the gospel of Matthew, in Chapter Twelve, Jesus says this:  “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit...how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.  Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in them, and evil people bring evil things out of the evil stored up in them.”

            So, if we read that along with what we’ve said about the fig tree and apply it to what Jesus said about prayer, what do we have?  Well, I’m not sure.  As I said, this is a verse I struggle with.  But try this.

            A tree is recognized by its fruit.  Or, in the case of the fig tree in today’s reading, by its lack of fruit.  Jesus recognized that the fig tree was a bad tree because it did not produce any figs.

            Similarly, of course, we, as humans, are recognized by what we produce.  Or, again, what we don’t produce.  If we are good, we will produce good fruit.  We’ll do things that are pleasing to God.  If we’re not good, we’ll produce bad fruit.  We’ll do things that are not pleasing to God.

            Okay, so far, so good.   But how does it relate to prayer?  Well, here’s how I think it relates to prayer.  What does it mean, exactly to be “good”?  What does it mean to be a “good tree” that produces “good fruit”?  If that’s our goal, to be a good tree that produces good fruit, how do we do it?

            I think the way we do it is by getting as close to God as we possibly can.  There are a lot of ways we can do that.  We can spend time in prayer.  We can spend time reading the Bible.  We can read or listen to devotional materials.  We can devote ourselves to helping people.  We can listen to Christian music, whether you like traditional hymns, gospel music, contemporary Christian music, or whatever.  We can spend time in nature, contemplating the beauty and wonder of God’s creation.  There are lots of other ways we can do it, too.

            But however we do it, we need to do it.  And it’s not enough to just do these things once, or even once in a while.  At least it’s not enough for me.  I need to do them consistently.  I need to do them frequently.  If I don’t, I’ll start to slide away from God.  If I want to get as close to God as I can, I have to work at it.  And I suspect that’s true for some others here, too.

And if we get close to God, and we stay close to God, we’ll find our faith increase.  It’ll get stronger.  We’ll be in tune with God.  Maybe not one hundred percent of the time, because we remain flawed, sinful people.  But a lot of the time.  We’ll be able to say the things God wants us to say.  We’ll be able to do the things God wants us to do.  We’ll be able to live the way God wants us to live.

            And we’ll be able to pray the way God wants us to pray.  We probably won’t pray for God to throw a mountain into the sea, because what would be the point of that?  But we might pray for God to help us serve others better.  We might pray for God to help us love others better.  We might pray for God to give us strength and keep us encouraged and keep us enthusiastic.  We might even pray for God to help us raise the money for an addition to this church.  We might pray for God to help us overcome our weakness, overcome our doubts, overcome our fears, and give us the courage to be the people God wants us to be.

            And when we do that, I absolutely believe God will answer that kind of prayer.  Because when we’re close to God, when we’re in tune with God, we won’t be praying selfishly.  We won’t be praying pointlessly.  We’ll be praying for things that honor God and please God.  And God will hear, and God will respond.

A fig tree that does not produce figs is not doing what it was put on earth to do.  When we act selfishly, when we fall away from God, we’re not doing what we were put on earth to do, either.  But the difference is that you and I have the ability to correct that.  You and I can change our ways.  You and I can do the things we need to do to get close to God, to get in tune with God, and to start producing good fruit again.

            So let’s do that.  This week, think about what you need to do to get closer to God.  Then, do it.  Let’s all figure out what we need to do and do it.  And then, we’ll find that we will receive what we ask for in prayer.

Are We Ready?

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Romans 13:8-14.

            In the month of December, we celebrate the season of Advent.  We light advent candles, we do special readings, we decorate the church, we do all kinds of things, as we prepare for Christmas, the day we celebrate the birth of Christ.

            And maybe you’re thinking, why is he talking about Advent?  This is Lent.  This is the time of preparation for Easter, not for Christmas.  What does Advent have to do with Easter?      

            Well, when you think about it, every time of year should be Advent.  Every Sunday should be a Sunday of Advent.  Because after all, what does that word “advent” mean?  It means the arrival of something or someone.  Not just any something or someone, of course.  Something or someone really important or special.  And if you think about it, that’s what we’re doing every Sunday, right?  Every Sunday, and in fact every Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and every other day, we are waiting for the second coming of Christ.

            In the official church season of Advent, of course, we do all kinds of things to get ready for the celebration of the birth of Christ.  We decorate our sanctuary.  We bring out the Advent hymns, the ones we only sing at that time of year. Then we bring out the Christmas hymns.  We plan our Christmas Eve services.  And in our personal lives, we decorating our homes and buy presents and plan family gatherings and Christmas parties and all sorts of things.  And a lot of us get really excited about all that.  We pull out all the stops to get ready to the coming of Christ.

            But what about the second coming of Christ?  What are we doing to get ready for that?

            I would suggest that, for most of us, the answer is “not much”.  And I include myself in that number.  I cannot honestly say that I’m doing much of anything to prepare for the second coming of Christ.

And maybe you’re thinking, well, why do we have to do anything?  After all, we’re told that we’re saved by our faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Our salvation comes from faith, not from what we do.  So, if I have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, I should not have to do anything to get ready for the second coming of Christ.

            Well, maybe.  But let’s look at what Paul says in our reading from Romans for today.  Now, Paul would’ve agreed that we are saved by faith in Christ and by nothing else.  In fact, earlier in Paul’s letter to the Romans, he writes at length about how it is not our actions, but our faith from which we get salvation.  But he also says that our faith is revealed by our actions.   

            Paul uses the example of Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his own son, Isaac, to God if that was what God wanted.  Maybe you remember that story--Abraham and his wife, Sarah, had been praying for God to give them children, but they remained childless for many years.  Finally, God gave them a son, Isaac.  But then, God told Abraham to go and sacrifice his son--to kill him.  And Abraham was willing to do it.  It was only at the last minute, when God saw that Abraham really would go through with it, that God called it off and saved Isaac.  

The point is that it was not the act of sacrifice of Isaac that was going to please God--it was the faith of Abraham that was behind it.  But at the same time, Abraham would not have been prepared to undertake that action if he had not had faith.  The two go hand in hand.

And so, when we say we are saved by our faith and not by our actions, that’s true.  But our actions reveal our faith.  If our actions don’t show that we have faith, then our faith is at best suspect.

So, I ask again:  what are we doing to get ready for the second coming of Christ?  In what way do our actions reveal our faith in Jesus as the Savior?

Now, I want to make clear that I don’t believe that the answer is “nothing”.  I don’t believe that there are no ways in which our actions reveal our faith in Jesus.  And in fact, this is not a question I can answer anyway.  Each of us needs to look at our lives and provide our own answer.  And it may not be an answer we can come up with right away.  We probably should take some time and really think about it.  And pray about it, too.  Because, ultimately, what we think the answer is does not matter.  What matters is what God thinks the answer is.  But I can tell you this much--the time to start working on this is now.

We don’t know when the second coming of Christ will be, of course.  And in that way, we’re in the same situation as the vast majority of people when Christ came the first time.  There was a very small, select group who knew what was going on.  Mary and Joseph, of course.  Mary’s cousin Elizabeth.  Eventually the shepherds and the wise men.  But that’s about it.  

Now, the rest of the people--at least, the rest of the Jewish people--knew the Messiah was going to come.  There had been prophecies of it for hundreds of years.  And if you look at what most of the people at that time were doing to get ready for the Messiah’s coming, the answer again would probably be, “Not much.”  Yes, there were people who were attending the synagogue or the temple regularly.  And there were people who said they believed in God.  But to what extent was their faith revealed by their actions?  What were they doing to get ready for the coming of the Messiah?

Again, I’m not suggesting that the answer for everybody was “nothing”.  I’m sure there were some people whose faith was certainly revealed by their actions.  And again, my answer to the question does not really matter anyway.  It’s God’s answer that matters.

But I suspect there were a lot of people who were not too concerned about the coming of the Messiah.  Yes, they knew the prophecies.  They knew he would come sometime.  But it had been hundreds of years, and nothing much had happened.  And so, while they claimed to believe in the Messiah’s coming, that belief did not really affect their lives to any significant extent.

That’s why Paul’s words that we read today are so important.  Understand the present time.  The hour has come for us to wake up.  Our salvation is nearer than ever.  The night is nearly over.  The day is almost here.

Do I know when it’s coming?  No.  You’ve heard me say it could be ten million years from now.  But it also could be ten years from now.  It could be ten months from now.  It could be ten days from now.  We don’t know.  That’s why it’s important that we do what we can to be ready for whenever that day comes.

What can we do?  Paul tells us.  Love our neighbors as ourselves.  Put aside the deeds of darkness.  Behave decently.  Live in a way that we don’t worry about whether people know what we’re doing.  Clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.

It sounds simple.  And in a lot of ways, it is simple.  Sometimes it can get complicated, though.  And you know why?  Most of the time, if it gets complicated, it’s because we’ve complicated it.  And usually, we’ve complicated it because we’re trying to come up with a way to justify doing what we know we should not do or justify not doing what we know we should do.

So how do we uncomplicate it?  By clothing ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.  And the best way I know of to do that is to stay close to Jesus, to try to feel the Lord’s presence with us.  And the best way I know of to do that is through prayer.

I don’t know how many of us pray regularly.  I know some of us do.  I hope all of us do, and maybe we all do.  But I’m not talking here about a quick prayer before a meal or at bedtime.  Those are good things to do, don’t get me wrong.  But if we really want to stay close to Jesus, if we really want to feel God’s Holy Spirit with us, if we really want to clothe ourselves with the Lord, we need to take some time.

At least, that’s how it works for me.  If I have not spent enough time in prayer, I feel it.  I feel it in my attitude.  I feel it in my emotions.  And it shows up in my actions.  I’m not as close to the Lord as I should be.  And it’s not the Lord who drifted away.  It’s me.  And the only way I can get back is to spend that time in prayer again.  Maybe that’s true for you, too.

The calendar says this is the season of Lent.  And Lent is an important time, no doubt about it.  But for the Christian, every Sunday is a Sunday of Advent, too.  We are waiting for the second coming of Christ.  We don’t know when it will come.  But if we pray, if we stay close to God, if we clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, we’ll be ready.  And we will able to celebrate that second coming even more than we celebrate the anniversary of the first coming.

 

Trust God and Do Good

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, March 20, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 37:1-17.

            I talk to a lot of people, as you probably do, too.  And of course, we talk about a lot of things, just like you do.  The weather.  The drought.  Sports.  Things going on in the community.  All kinds of things.

            But a lot of times, the talk turns to things that are going on in the world.  And when the talk turns that way, there seems to be a common theme.  There are a lot of people who, as they look at the world, believe evil is winning.  They see evil ascending, good declining, and they don’t see that changing anytime soon, if ever.

            Maybe you’re one of those people.  If so, I’m not criticizing you.  I understand it.  There are a lot of things that seem to be going wrong.  I’m not going to go list them, because a lot of them have political implications and I don’t want to get into that.  But if you pay even the slightest attention to the news, you know there are a lot of bad things happening.  And even granting that “the news” tends to focus on the bad news, still, there are a lot of things happening in this world that do not seem to be as they should be.  I can understand why some people believe evil is winning.

            But here’s the thing.  If it appears that evil is winning, it’s an illusion.  It may look now, for the moment that evil is winning, but ultimately evil will not win.  Evil cannot win.  Good will win because God will win, and God is good.  We worship the almighty, all-powerful God.  We worship a God who cannot be defeated, who is greater and better than anything we can imagine.  If it appears that evil is winning, that’s just because God allows it to appear that way, for whatever reason God may have.  But no matter how things may appear at the moment, God is winning, and God will win.  

            That’s the message of our Bible reading from tonight from Psalm Thirty-seven.  It says it over and over again.  Don’t worry about evil winning.  It’s not going to.  God will take care of it.  

            Listen to the number of times that message is given, just in these few verses.  Verses one and two:  “Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.”  Verse seven:  “Do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”  Verse nine:  “Those who are evil will be destroyed”.  Verse ten:  “A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.”  Verses twelve and thirteen:  “The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth against them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.”  Verses fourteen and fifteen:  “The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright, but their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.”  Verse seventeen:  “The power of the wicked will be broken.”

            Seven times, in these seventeen verses, we are told that evil will not win, and the wicked will not succeed.  And if we had read the rest of the psalm we’d have heard that message five more times.  I think God, speaking the author of this psalm, wants us to get the point.  Evil will fade away.  Those who are evil will be destroyed.  In fact, they will be obliterated.  Their own schemes will bring them down.

            So the question is, do you believe that?  And the other question is, if you believe it, do you trust it?  That’s not two ways of asking the same thing.  It’s one thing to say yes, I believe evil will not win.  It’s another to say, I trust that evil will not win.  

Trust is really the key.  Trust is what allows us to live our lives without fear, no matter what may be happening in the world. You see, if we don’t trust that evil will not win, then we think it’s our job to prevent evil from winning.  We think it’s up to us to fight evil, rather than leaving the battle up to God.

So, am I saying that we should do nothing?  Am I saying that we should just sit back, watch what’s happening in the world, and not do anything about it?

No, that’s not what I’m saying.  Our psalm tells us that we have a role to play in fighting evil.  How do we fight evil?  By trusting God, by following God, and by doing good.

That message is given quite a number of times, too, in these few verses.  Verse three:  “Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.”  Verses five and six:  “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:  He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”  Verse seven:  “Be still before the Lord and wait for him; do not fret when people...carry out their wicked schemes.”  Verse eight:  “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret--it leads only to evil.”  Verse eleven:  “The meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.”  Verses sixteen and seventeen:  “Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of the wicked...the Lord upholds the righteous.”

Six times, in those verses, that same message is given.  And it’s made a whole bunch more times in the rest of the psalm.  Our job is not to go out and battle evil.  Our job is not to seek out and destroy the wicked.  Our job is to trust in the Lord.  Our job is to do good.  Our job is to commit our lives, and the way we live them, to God.  We are not supposed to get angry, we are not supposed to be indignant, we are not supposed to worry.  We are to follow the ways of the Lord in everything we do and everything we say.  And we are to leave the rest to God, trusting that God will deal with the wicked and will take care of us.

So, again, the question is, do you believe that?  And again, the other question is, if you believe it, do you trust it?  Because, again, that’s not two ways of asking the same question.  It’s one thing to say we believe that our job is to trust in the Lord, commit ourselves to God, and do good.  It’s another to say, I’m going to actually do that, I’m going to actually live that way, and I’m not going to worry about what may happen as a result of that.

Because here’s the thing.  I said it’s not our job to go out and battle evil, and I believe that.  But at the same time, there are times when evil will bring the battle to us.  Because there are times when committing our lives to God, doing good, following the ways of the Lord in everything we do and say, can get us into trouble.  God is not always popular in our society right now.  Following God is not always popular in our society right now.  We may not feel it as much, living here in small town South Dakota, but if you follow the news at all you’re aware of it.  And our little towns are not walled off from society, much as we might like to imagine that they are.  Those same elements that make God unpopular in other parts of the country are going to make their way here, and in fact already are.  We may not feel it now, but someday we will.

That’s why believing these things and trusting them are not the same thing.  If we believe these things, but we don’t trust them, we may not be able to withstand the pressure from society.  When following the ways of the Lord gets us into trouble, we may fold.  We may take what appears to be the easy way out.  It’s always tempting to go along with the crowd.  It takes courage, and it takes trust in God, to resist the crowd and continue to follow the ways of the Lord, and to not worry about what may happen as a result of doing that.  It takes courage to trust that God will take care of us, and that God will bless us, if we resist the pressure to go along and get along and instead stay faithful to God.

It’s easy to believe that evil will win.  But it won’t.  God is going to win.  God always wins.  The almighty, all-powerful God is undefeated.  And He always will be.

So let’s have faith in God.  Let’s trust in God.  And let’s believe what the psalm says.  Evil will fade away.  It will be destroyed.  It will be obliterated!  The wicked’s own schemes will bring them down.  All we need to do is trust in the Lord.  Do good.  Commit our lives to God, don’t get angry, and don’t worry.  Follow the ways of the Lord.  God will take care of the evil and the wicked.  And God will take care of us, too.

 

Your Grief Will Turn to Joy

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on March 13, 2022.  The Bible verses used are John 16:16-24.

            Suppose there was a way you could know, in advance, the day you were going to die.  Would you want to?

            It would certainly change a person’s outlook, right?  Especially if you knew that it was going to be in a fairly short time.  It would put some things into perspective, I would think.  There are probably some things that we do–things that seem really important to us now–that suddenly would seem pretty meaningless.  And there are other things–things that we put off, thinking that we have plenty of time–that would suddenly seem very important for us to do.

            In our reading for tonight, Jesus is in the last night of his life on earth.  The disciples don’t know that, of course.  They know they’re in danger–they know the authorities are trying to figure out a way to stop them–but they don’t know that Jesus is going to be killed, and they certainly don’t know that he’s going to be killed the next day.

            But Jesus knows.  Jesus knows this is his last night alive on earth.  And he chooses to spend that night with the disciples, his best earthly friends.  And he spends his time trying to prepare them for his death, and for their work to go on without him.

            This comes near the end of a pretty long speech Jesus makes.  It takes up about four chapters of the gospel of John.  It’s sometimes called Jesus’ Farewell Address.  He has told the disciples all kinds of things to get them ready for him to be gone.  

Now, he tells them that time is coming soon.  He will leave them.  And they’ll be sad.  But then, he tells them, “your grief will turn to joy.”

It’s questionable whether the disciples understood Jesus at all.  But if they did, they must have wondered, how can that be?  How can our grief turn to joy?  Jesus dying was probably about the worst thing they could probably imagine.  I suspect Peter and James and John and the others would rather have died themselves than to have Jesus die.  How could their grief over Jesus’ death possibly turn to joy?

It’s a question we may ask sometimes, too.  Because there are probably people hearing me speak today who are grieving.  Of those who are not, many of you probably have at some point.  And grief is a very hard thing.  It’s more than just being sad.  It’s a deep sorrow.  It’s a sense of mourning.  It’s a sense that something has been lost, taken away from you, and that things will never again be like they were.

When we’re grieving, joy is about the last thing we can imagine feeling.  Joy does not even appear on our radar screen.  I mean, yes, we’ve heard all the Bible verses.  We may even believe them.  “There’s a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”  “Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”  “God can work all things for the good of those who love him.”  We hear those verses, and we nod our heads, and maybe somewhere in our minds we agree with them.  But at that moment, when we’re grieving, we really don’t want to hear it.  All we know is what we’re feeling, and at that moment, we don’t think we’ll ever feel anything else ever again.

And you know what?  That’s okay.  Because there is a time to mourn, and we need to take that time.  And we’re allowed to take whatever time it takes.  After all, even though Jesus told the disciples that he was going to die and that he was going to rise again, when Jesus died they still felt grief.  They were completely at a loss.  They just sat in a room in Jerusalem, not knowing what to do, not really doing anything, not really wanting to do anything.  The only thing that got them out of their grief was when they saw proof that Jesus was raised from the dead.

So it’s okay to grieve.  And it’s okay to take some time to grieve.  But in our grief, can we somehow, in some way, also hold onto hope?  Can we have enough faith to believe that, somehow, in some way, we will feel joy again, even if, at the moment, we cannot see how it could possibly happen?

Because that’s what we’re really talking about here.  It’s not that our grief goes away.  Yes, the disciples felt joy when Jesus came back to them, but eventually Jesus did go back to heaven.  And when that happened, the disciples were sad.  We’re told that, when Jesus ascended back to heaven, the disciples just stood there for a while, staring after him.  Probably wishing desperately that he might come back.  It was only after two men dressed in white, whom we assume to be angels, told them Jesus had gone back to heaven that they left.  

It’s not that the disciples stopped feeling bad that Jesus was gone.  I’m sure they wished he could be back with them.  But they also felt joy that Jesus was now in heaven.  And they felt joy at the assurance that someday, they would join Jesus in heaven.  Their grief turned to joy, not because their grief disappeared, but because they could see reasons for joy despite their grief.

And it seems to me that’s how it works.  God turns our grief into joy, but not by making our grief magically disappear.  God turns our grief into joy by showing us that there are reasons for joy in spite of our grief.

And part of that is doing what the disciples did when the angels left them.  They prayed, and they figured out a way to start again.  They figured out a way to move forward.  Yes, Jesus was gone, and they were still sad about that.  But they still had work to do.  God still had a purpose for them.  And they set about figuring out how to fulfill that purpose.

That’s what we need to do, too, when we’re grieving.  Feel the grief.  Don’t deny it.  Don’t pretend it’s not there.  But then, look for reasons for joy in spite of our grief.  Figure out a way to move forward.  Because God still has purposes for our lives.  There are still things God wants us to do.  And we need to figure out how to fulfill those purposes God still has for us.

I don’t mean to pretend this is easy.  It’s not.  It was not easy for the disciples.  In fact, you could say the disciples went through grief at losing Jesus twice.  Jesus was crucified, and they grieved his death.  And then Jesus was resurrected, and he came back and was with them again, and they were overjoyed.  But then he left them again, this time for good.  And they were left grieving again.

It could not have been easy for the disciples to get over that.  But they did.  It’s not easy for you and I to get over grief, either.  But we can.  We can through our faith in Jesus Christ.  Again, it’s not that our faith takes our grief away.  But what our faith can do is show us that our grief does not have to be permanent.  

The reason we know it does not have to be permanent is that we know who God is.  Not completely–no human being can fully understand God.  But we know that God is all-powerful.  We know that God is all-loving.  We know that God is righteous.  We know that God is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-wise.  We know that God is holy and perfect.  We know that God is all-caring, all-forgiving, and all-merciful.

Because we know all those things about God, we know this:  in the end, God wins.  No matter what happens on earth, God wins.  And if we have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, we win, too.  No matter what happens on earth, by our faith in Jesus Christ and by God’s love and grace and mercy, in the end, we win.  And we go to be with the Lord in heaven.

Now again, that’s not to say we cannot grieve sometimes.  Even Jesus grieved, when he was on earth.  Jesus cried when His good friend Lazarus died, and Jesus knew He was going to bring Lazarus back to life.  If Jesus could grieve, we can grieve, too.  It does not show any lack of faith.  It’s okay.

But through our faith, our grief can turn into joy.  Because we can know that, in the end, we will win.  We will go to be with the Lord in heaven.  We, and everyone else who believes in Jesus, will go to be with the Lord in heaven.  We will be where there is no pain, no worries, and no fear.  We can be where there is nothing but peace and joy and love.  Love of each other, and love of God.  And we will feel God’s love for us, a love that never dies and never weakens.

The disciples grieved, but their grief eventually turned to joy.  We will grieve, but our grief will eventually turn to joy.  Through our faith, we can look for reasons to move forward.  Through our faith, we can find the purpose God still has for our lives.  Through our faith, we can fulfill that purpose, and feel the joy that comes from that.  And through our faith, we can know that our grief is not permanent.  Eventually, we will feel the joy of being in heaven with the Lord.

“You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.”  It was true for the disciples.  It’s true for us, too.

 

Peace in Uncertain Times

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on March 6, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Colossians 3:1-17.

            We live in strange, different, unusual times.  You know that, and you don’t need me to go through all the ways in which that’s true.  The world has changed a lot, and in many ways, in the last two years.  In fact, you could say the world has changed a lot in the last two weeks.

            Change is not an easy thing for us to deal with.  Most of us like routine.  We can carry routine too far, of course, and allow our routine to become a rut.  But still, most of us like for things to stay more or less the same.  Even if things are not great, we don’t like them to change too much too fast.  We like to know how things are going to be tomorrow, next week, next month.

            It’s unsettling to live in a time of uncertainty.  We hope things will get better, we fear things will get worse, but we have no real evidence that convinces us of either one.  Yes, we believe that God is still in control, and that God is eventually going to win.  We even believe that, if we stay faithful to God and believe in Jesus as the Savior, we will eventually win, too.  But it’s that “eventually” that’s the tricky bit.  We can know things will be all right “eventually”, and still be unsettled and even fearful about what’s going to happen until that “eventually” gets here.

            In times like this, what we need, what we want, is peace.  We look for peace in lots of places.  We look for it in money or material possessions, thinking security can be found there.  We look for it in status, thinking the belief that others think well of us will make us feel better.  Sometimes we look for it in politics, thinking that if the “right people” are in control of the government, then somehow everything will be all right and we can be at peace.

            But peace cannot be found in any of those places.  True peace can only be found in one place, and that’s in faith in Jesus Christ.

            But maybe you think, wait a minute.  I have faith in Jesus Christ.  But there’s still all this stuff going on.  There’s still all this uncertainty.  I have faith, but with everything that’s happening, how can I possibly feel peace?

            The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, tells us.  He says, “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

            When you think about it, all the things that have us concerned, all the things that get us upset, all the things that get us rattled and even fearful, are earthly things, right?  Whatever they are, whether it’s physical health or financial health or relationship problems or concerns about the country or the world or whatever it is, they are all earthly things.  They are not the things above.  They are not the things of heaven.  

            Now, it’s understandable why we have all these concerns about earthly things.  Earth is where we live, at least for now.  Earth is the only home we’ve ever known.  We have the hope and the promise of heaven, but we have a hard time really understanding what heaven actually is.  And besides, heaven is for someday.  Our concerns are for now, today.  And again, knowing that things will “eventually” be all right is not necessarily a lot of comfort when it seems like things are not all right now.

            But here’s the thing.  Paul is not saying we should ignore all earthly concerns.  He’s saying we need to focus on the things that concern both earth and heaven.  

            What are those things?  Paul lists them.  Compassion.  Kindness.  Humility.  Gentleness. Patience.  Bear with others.  Forgive others.  And over all those things, Paul says, put on love.

            Those are earthly things.  But they’re heavenly things, too.  They’re the things Jesus wants us to do.  They’re the things Jesus did.  And they’re the things that lead to peace.

            What do those things have in common?  Well, maybe a lot of things, but one of them is that they take our focus off of ourselves.  They are things we feel toward other people.  They are things we do for other people.

            It seems to me Paul is saying that’s how we can feel peace.  Take the focus off ourselves.  Take the focus off our concerns and our fears.  Put the focus on others.  If we do that, a lot of the things that make us feel unsettled, that keep us rattled, that keep us from feeling peace, will go away.  I mean, they’ll still be there, but they just won’t seem as important anymore.  We won’t have time for them.  We’ll be too busy focusing on others.

            So how can we do that?  Well, Paul tells us that, too.  He says this:

Be thankful.  Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

            The way we focus on others is to focus on God.  Learn from God.  Acquire wisdom from God.  Do that through psalms, hymns and other songs of the Spirit.  Take in everything the Bible has to teach us, so that Christ’s message will dwell in us.  When we do that, when Christ’s message really dwells in us, it becomes part of us.  When Christ’s message truly becomes part of it, we can no more get rid of it than we can get rid of a part of our body.  Christ’s message is no longer something we can choose to ignore.  We may not think about it every waking moment, but it’s always there.  It’s always part of us.

            When Christ’s message dwells in us, and becomes part of us, that message influences everything we do and everything we say.  It influences us even when we’re not consciously thinking about it.  It influences us even when we don’t realize it.  Because Christ’s message of compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience and forgiveness and love is so strong, it’s so powerful, that once it’s in us we cannot help but be influenced by it.  We can ignore it, for a while, but Christ’s message will always come back.  It may come back in the form of regret or guilt or conscience or something else, but it will always come back.  Once Christ’s message truly dwells in us, it is a part of us forever.

            The key to it, really, is what Paul tells us next.  “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”  That’s how we feel peace in our lives:  by living them for Jesus.  That’s how we can stop focusing on ourselves and our problems:  by living our lives for Jesus.  If we do everything in the name of Jesus, we won’t have time to be focused on ourselves.  In fact, we won’t even think about that.  We’ll be too busy doing things for others in the name of Jesus.

            It sounds simple.  And it is simple.  But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.  Our “earthly nature”, as Paul puts it, is strong.  It’s powerful.  Even when we really try to live our lives for Christ, when we really try to do everything in the name of Jesus, our earthly nature keeps coming back at us.  It tries to pull us away from Jesus, and back to our earthly concerns and fears.

            How do we avoid that?  Paul tells us that, too.  He says, “Be thankful.  Give thanks to God the Father through Jesus.”

            Being thankful to God keeps our focus on God.  Being thankful keeps us living our lives for Jesus.  Being thankful is what will give us lives of peace.

            How does being thankful do that?  Because when we focus on being thankful to God, we realize how much God has done for us.  And when we realize how much God has done for us, we realize how much God loves us.  And when we realize how much God loves us, we think about all the times God has been there for us.  

We think about all the times when we were worried, when we were concerned, when we were scared, when things in our lives were uncertain and that uncertainty had us rattled.  And then God was there.  God showed up, and somehow God made it all work out.  Not necessarily the way we wanted, but in a way that was best.

God has done that for me time after time after time.  And I suspect God has done that for you, too, time after time after time.  And when I think about that, I know there’s only one thing I should feel.  I should be thankful to God for all that God has done for me for almost sixty-two years now.  And I suspect, when you think about it, you’re thankful for God for all that God has done for you for all your life, too.

And when we feel that thankfulness, we also feel confidence.  If God has always been there for us in the past, why would God not be there for us now?  God does not set us up just to let us fall.  The same God who has been there for us all our lives is still there for us now.  God promises to never leave us or forsake us.  God will see us through everything we’re going through.  We don’t have to be afraid of what’s going to happen.  God will see us through all the chaos and uncertainty and fear that’s going on right now.  

Knowing that, we can take our focus off ourselves and our problems.  We can live lives of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love.  We can live our lives for Jesus.  And we can feel at peace.

The times are uncertain, but Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  If we trust him, take our focus off ourselves, and live for Jesus, God will take care of us.  And we will feel the peace that we all want in our lives.

 

Using Jesus' Power

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, March 6, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Acts 3:1-26.

            We’re all familiar with the miraculous healing power that Jesus had when he was on earth.  Over and over again, we read in the gospels about Jesus making a blind man see, or a lame man walk, or something similar.  Once the word spread that Jesus could do that, people from all over brought their loved ones to Jesus to be healed.  We read of times when Jesus would spend hours, all day sometimes, healing people.  It had to be an amazing thing to witness.

            What we don’t think about as often is that, after Jesus returned to heaven, His disciples had miraculous healing power, too.  Now, they did not use it as often as Jesus did, or at least if they did we’re not told about it in the Bible.  We don’t read of people bringing their loved ones from all over to be healed by Peter or John.  But they did have that power, and they could use it on occasion.  As they did in our Bible reading for today.

            And you know, as we read these stories, we really need to think about them, because to me, the way this comes about is kind of interesting.  We’re told that Peter and John were going to the temple at the time of prayer.  Presumably this is something they did frequently–probably every day if they could.  And we’re also told that this man, who had been lame from the time of his birth, was at this same gate of the temple every day, where he would beg for money.

            I mention this because, as I think about this, it seems likely that Peter and John knew this guy would be there.  In fact, it seems likely that they’d seen him there before.  Maybe lots of times.  Maybe they’d talked to him before.  Maybe they’d even gotten acquainted with him.  Maybe they’d even given him money before, if they had any.  Now, again, we don’t know this–the Bible does not say it–but it just seems likely given the facts that we do know.

            So, given all that, did Peter and John plan this?  Did they decide they wanted to heal this man?  Did they pray to God for the power to heal this man?  Again, we don’t know.  The Bible does not say.  It just seems to me like it could’ve happened that way, given the way this all plays out.

            But at any rate, Peter and John go to the temple.  They see the man.  He asks them for money.  And Peter makes the statement, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”  And Peter helps the man up, and he walks!

            The guy is overjoyed, obviously.  He starts jumping up and down, celebrating.  And from the reaction of everyone, it seems like lots of people were acquainted with this man, this beggar.  We’re told they were “filled with wonder and amazement” at what happened.

            And Peter and John were ready for that reaction.  Whether they planned this in advance or not, when the crowd reacted, they were ready.  Peter tells them exactly what happened, how it happened, and why it happened.  He tells them, why are you staring at us?  We did not do this by our own power, but by the power of Jesus Christ.  You remember Jesus, right?  You had him killed, but God raised Him from the dead.  It’s by faith in Him that this man was healed.

            Peter goes on to say, look, I know you guys just did not know any better.  But now you do.  So now, repent of your sins, and accept Jesus as the Savior.  Then your sins can be wiped out and you can be blessed by God.

            So the question is, as you’ve heard me say several times before, what can we learn from this story?  Well, in this case, I think there are a lot of things we can learn.  This is a story with all kinds of lessons for us.  I won’t have time to go through all of them today.  But we’ll hit a few of them.

            One lesson we can learn is that our faith in Jesus can give us power.  Quite likely, it gives us more power than we realize.  Now, I’m not saying it will give us the power of supernatural physical healing.  It is possible–after all, nothing is beyond God’s power.  But I’ve never been able to heal someone just by saying a few words.  And my guess is that most of you have not been able to do that, either.

            But still, our faith in Jesus can give us power, if we’re willing to rely on that faith and that power.  Have you ever been in a situation where you did not know what to do, but you felt like you had to do something, so you did, and it turned out to be the right thing to do?  That’s using Jesus’ power.  Have you ever been in a situation where you did not know what to say, but you felt like you had to say something, and you did, and it turned out to be the right thing to say?  That’s using Jesus’ power.  Have you ever been minding your own business, and all of a sudden the name of someone came to mind, and you felt like you needed to call them or do something for them, and it turned out to be just what that person needed?  That’s using Jesus’ power.  

            Those are just a few examples.  There are all kinds of situations in which our faith in Jesus can give us power, if we’ll only rely on that faith and that power.

            Another lesson we can learn is that, if we keep our eyes open and keep our hearts open, the Lord will give us all kinds of chances to use Jesus’ power.  Again, we don’t know if this was something Peter and John planned out in advance or if it happened on the spur of the moment.  But at some point, they opened their eyes and opened their hearts to this man.  At some point, Peter and John realized that they could do more for this man than just give him a little money.  At some point, the realized that they had been given the chance, not just to do something nice for this guy, but to use the healing power of Jesus on him.  They had been given the chance to truly make an impact on his life.  They had been given the chance to change someone’s life forever.  They had been given the chance to make a disciple of Jesus Christ.

            If you and I keep our eyes open, if we keep our hearts open, God will give us those chances, too.  Again, I’m not saying we will have supernatural power–although, again, nothing is beyond God’s power.  But if we keep our eyes open, and if we keep our hearts open, God will give us the chance to do more than just do something nice for someone.  God will give us the chance to truly make an impact on someone’s life.  God will give us the chance to change someone’s life forever.  God will give us the chance to make a disciple of Jesus Christ.  If will happen.  In fact, it probably has happened, several times.  Maybe sometimes you’ve recognized it.  Maybe you have not.  But the chances are there, and they will continue to be there.  God will give us those chances.  We just need to keep our eyes and our hearts open, so we can see them and take advantage of them.

            But that’s another lesson we can learn from this–that if we miss those chances, God will give us more of them.  Who knows how many times Peter and John might have seen this guy before they healed him?   Who knows how many times they may have walked right past him on their way into the temple, maybe stopping to give him a little money, or maybe not?  They may have missed chance after chance to help this man.  But God kept giving them chances, until eventually they saw what God wanted them to do, and they did it.

            God will do that for us, too.  If we miss chances to use Jesus’ power, we will get more of them.  God will never stop giving us chances to make an impact on someone’s life.  God will never stop giving us chances to change someone’s life.  God will never stop giving us chances to bring people to Christ.  If we’ve missed them in the past, well, we probably cannot do much about that.  But we can take advantage of the chances God is still giving us, now and in the future.

            There are lots of other lessons we could learn, but here’s just one more:  when we do see the chances God gives us, be ready.  Be ready not just to use Jesus’ power, but be ready to explain what we’ve done and how we’ve done it.  Be ready to tell people that it is, in fact, the power of Jesus Christ that we are using.  Be ready to explain to people who Jesus Christ is.  Be ready to explain to people that, if they have not believed in Jesus in the past, it’s okay.  They just did not know any better.  But now, they can know.  And so they can repent, and turn to God.  They can believe in Jesus as the Savior.  And then, their sins, too, can be wiped out.  And they can be blessed by God.  And it’s a pretty awesome blessing.  It’s a blessing that gives the chance for salvation and eternal life.

            Our faith in Jesus Christ can give us power.  God will give us chances to use that power.  If we miss some, God will give us some more.  But it’s up to us to take advantage of those chances.  Take advantage of the chances God gives us, not just to do something nice for someone, but to make an impact on someone’s life and bring them to Christ.  To help them accept the salvation and eternal life that Christ offers.  God will do God’s part.  Let’s do our part.