Are You Feeling The Weight?

I want to start by thanking all of you for your responses to yesterday's Bread. What a joy it is to know I don't have to deal with this on my own. Your prayers are working, as I feel much less angered about the situation I described yesterday. This is a huge blessing! In the way only God can do it, today I received a devotional that really touched my heart. I'm going to share it with you because I think some of you, like me, are feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders. I think this will bless you…

There's a story about an old grandfather clock that had stood for three generations in the same corner of a room, faithfully ticking off the minutes and hours, day after day. In the clock was a heavy weight that was pulled to the top each night to keep it running. Then one day the clock was sold, and the new owner noticed the heavy weight. "Too bad," he said, "that such an old clock should have to bear so great a load." So he took the weight off the chain. At once the clock stopped ticking. "Why did you do that?" asked the clock. "I wanted to lighten your burden," said the man. "Please put it back," said the clock. "That's what keeps me going!"

Most people are looking for an easy way through life. They think that if they had no burdens they could live pleasantly and triumphantly. They don't realize that God often keeps us going spiritually by the weights that seem to pull us down. Trials can give our feet spiritual traction. Our burdens not only bring us blessing in this life, but they also are "working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory". --H G Bosch

2 Corinthians 4:17,18 (NIV)
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 12:9
Most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

God's Word assures us that if we seek His Kingdom (having accepted Jesus as our Savior and striving to live a holy life), all things will work themselves out. We can trust this truth for our lives. Are you feeling the weight? Are you trusting Jesus to help you shoulder the burden? He will make us stronger as a result of our trials.

Blessings,
Bill

The Sin That So Easily Besets Us

Dear Brother and Sisters in Christ, as I write today I am in serious need of prayer. I'm struggling today and I need your help. The phrase that keeps running through my brain is "..and the sin which doth so easily beset us." (Heb 12:1, KJV). Today that sin is anger. You see, it's very easy for me to get angry. When I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior, He saved me from (among many other things) a volatile temper, and replaced it with love for others. My problem is that everything goes very smoothly when I'm getting along with people (which is about 95% of the time), but when someone gets "in my face," I can quickly change to fight mode. Let's just say "Bill in fight mode" is not a very good example of Christian love, and I don't want my living testimony to reflect negatively on my Savior.

The hardest part about this is that the person who got in my face is another Christian. So here I am thinking about all the ways I can embarrass a torment this woman, and small voice is telling me to love her. I'm saying to myself, "Love her?!?! How can I love her Lord? You heard what she said. I may have deserved some of her comments, but she doesn't know what I'm going through. She doesn't understand. Why didn't she just offer to help, rather than belittle me for not getting something done?" Then Jesus reminds me:

Romans 5:8 (KJV)
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He reminds me that he suffered for me. He could easily complain about how he was treated…"What do you think the soldiers and the crowd said to me? I did absolutely nothing wrong. I didn't deserve any of it. Don't you remember they beat me and hung me on cross to die? I gave them nothing but love, and they mocked and hated me for it."

What can I say to that? The answer is obvious (but no less difficult to accomplish), I must love this mean-spirited bitter person as Christ loved me. I can't do it on my own. I need the Holy Spirit to indwell in and live through me. I need support from the Body of Christ. I need Jesus.
What is the sin that so easily besets you? Is lying an easy way for you to avoid problems? Maybe you can't stop gossiping about people? Maybe you can't look away when an object of desire is in your area? You do have help available to you.

His name is Jesus.

Blessings to you all,
Bill

Going Through The Storm

Matthew 8:24-26 (NASB)
"And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, 'Save us, Lord; we are perishing!' He said to them, 'Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?' Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm."

I don't know about you, but today I'm going through a storm. Naturally I don't mean a physical storm (the weather outside is actually quite pleasant for this time of year in Louisville), I'm talking about an emotional/spiritual storm. Boy, is it raging! Here at work I've got server problems hitting me from one side, report issues on another, and the maintenance/programming work I planned to do today is barely touched. At home I've bills to pay, taxes to file, projects to do in the home and the yard, my son's car needs work, my daughter's flunking science (and doing poorly in history) so I'm doing homework with her a couple hours every night, my son's prescription medicine provider was denied by our insurance and we have to "do the dance" to get him the meds he needs. At church (the place where we're supposed to find peace and support) I'm responsible for the study I referenced yesterday, we're going through a transition of leadership on the Worship Ministry Team (I'm in the choir and the Praise Team), I have an Easter special to organize for my Puppet Team, and a Sunday School lesson to prepare for this weekend….'Save me, Lord; I am perishing!'

My guess is, most of you could match me point for point with things that are going on in your life. Fact of the matter is, there are some of you out there who have lists with things on it that I couldn't begin to know how to deal with. Life comes at all of us at a very frenetic pace, and it can be very hard to deal with. What a blessing we have that we don't have to go through it alone. Jesus is by our side through all the trials and all the hardship. He has the ability to calm the storm. He will give you all the strength you need, just trust in Him. Lord knows, I am.

Blessings,
Bill

Where Will You Worship?

Greetings Brothers and Sisters in the Lord. I pray you are in good health and growing in your relationship with the Lord. I am currently leading a sub-committee at my church. God has provided an opportunity for our church to move to a new site, and we're analyzing the ministry needs to determine whether moving is a good idea. I have been asked to determine whether our current sanctuary is sufficient for our ministry teams to lead the congregation in worship. My first thought was that this should be easy. After all, our 50+ year-old sanctuary does need a lot of work. The pews are tightly packed together, the alter area is small, the stage is cramped, they have trouble regulating the heating/cooling, the lighting is poor, and nobody could argue that the sound system needs to be replaced…all of these "deficiencies" could be easily remedied by a modern properly designed facility. Once I really started thinking about it, however, I thought to myself, "You know what Bill, there probably millions of Christians out there who would love to have a church as nice as this." This made me think about all the Christians who are having wonderful experiences with God while worshipping in tents, basements, store fronts, thatch huts, and shanty towns all around the world. I think Jesus alluded to this in a statement he made to the Samarian woman at the well:

John 4:20-24 (NASB)
"Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.'"

God doesn't care where you worship. He's not concerned with the buildings (or even the lack there of). He wants you to worship Him in "spirit and truth". That means He wants your heart and your mind to be in one with Him. Worship Him wherever you are today. I guarantee if you're heart's right, it will be the perfect place.

Blessings,
Bill