Four years ago my family was planning a vacation overseas.  And when I say “planning” I mean we were really ready to go – airline tickets had been bought, passports updated, B&B booked – expecting to GO!  We were supposed to leave on a Tuesday, but on the Thursday before then, the country we were going to, suddenly closed its borders.  You remember, a little thing called COVID had hit.  Well of course our first reaction was one of disappointment – WHAT, we can’t go because of a little virus!  But as I began to think through what had happened I began to realize that IF we had gone when we planned to, the chances were good (or rather bad) that we could easily have been “trapped” in that country for who knows how long – unable to return to our homes and the remainder of our family.

Three years ago a close friend of ours passed away after a difficult battle with cancer.  What I remember most about that four year fight?  Not the trips to Mayo in Jacksonville, the chemo, the radiation – I remember her motto: “God’s got a plan, God’s got a plan.”  As a believer, she never got discouraged, never gave up, her faith never wavered. It was probably the most memorable example of someone who has complete confidence in her Heavenly Father.

So when we make our plans, even for each day, our goal should be to discover what His plan is for our day.  I’m not going to quote you Jeremiah 29:11, you already know it – but it is so true that His plans for us are so much higher, better, so full of hope.  He is so trustworthy and loving towards us. 

Now I’m not a big fan of Shakespeare, but he once said “the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.”  I have found that to be so true.  We make our plans and then something changes them – unexpected things pop up:  a flat tire, a missed airline connection, you oversleep, you drop you phone and it breaks.  Unexpected changes to your plan.  But wait, maybe that flat tire kept you from being in an accident, maybe that missed airplane meant you had an opportunity to witness to someone while you waited, and while oversleeping isn’t a good thing it’s not the worst thing.  Making a plan usually makes for a more organized day, but I really believe it has to have some built-in flexibility.  We need to be ready to recognize when God is doing something we had not planned for, but that it is in His plan for us.

My wife and I are both retired so our plans are probably a bit more flexible that some others.  But we often joke “Well what have we got planned for tomorrow that will probably change.”  I could list several instances, but I’ll give you just one:  Two weeks ago I got a call from a friend who lives in another state and he said his mom (who lives here by herself) was in terrible pain and would we go check on her.  Fortunately we were able to do so:  we took her to the walk-in clinic, then to get an ultra-sound, then to the pharmacy, and back home.  She is doing much better.

My point is that God places us in situations that we may not fully understand immediately, so that we can be used to fulfill His plan – for us, yes, and perhaps for someone else.  It amazes me that the Creator of the universe says that He has plans for ME!!  And as a believer He has a plan for you.  Most of the time He reveals His plan to us in His instruction manual – the Bible.  But as we seek Him more and more, through study, prayer, and the counsel of other believers, His plan becomes more and more obvious.

My heart tells me that His heart is towards me.

Making our plans is necessary, learning His plan for us is paramount.

Be blessed, be a blessing

Stan

We are living in a world filled with chaos, crime, division, wars, and hate. I have heard many lament about the futures of our kids and grandkids. It is difficult to think about what they may be faced with in this world. As we catch ourselves thinking about the future what are we to do? Let us unpack the root of these feelings. Where do these negative feelings come from? These feelings emanate from an internal restlessness, a lack peace, experienced both physically, spiritually, or mentally. Parking your mind to long in these feelings will affect your personal relationship with Jesus.

I ran across a phrase recently “having Hope within the hurt” and it made stop in my tracks. The world is hurting but we believers have Hope and this Hope comes from Jesus and His promises. Titus 1:2 tells us: our faith is “based on the hope and divine guarantee of eternal life, the life which God, who is ever truthful and without deceit, promised before the ages of time began.”

 “Having Hope within the hurt” is a variation of the saying “looking at a glass as half full or half empty”, or in this case whether you look to the future with Hope or hurt. The Hope that only Jesus provides is seeing the future with excitement and great expectations. The hurt I speak of is looking at the future with anxiety or through depression. We must face the fact that depression comes from living too much in your past, and anxiety comes from living too much in your future. We must actively pursue living in the present moment with God. Living each moment with God is the only way both anxiety and depression can be healed. How do we live our lives? Is the glass half empty or half full? Do you live each moment with the joy that comes from the Hope only Jesus can bring or are the hurts of the world pulling us down into anxiety or depression?

God creates circumstances in our lives that draw us near to Him so He can transform our lives; giving us Hope rather than despair - love instead of resentment an bitterness - joy in place of depression - and peace as opposed to fear or anxiety. The Word of God instructs us:

1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all on Him, for He loves and cares about you watchfully.”

Deuteronomy 31:8 “It is the Lord Who goes before you; He will not fail you or let go or forsake you; fear not, neither become broken in spirit - depressed or unnerved with alarm.”

Go back to the daily time you have spent with God in prayer and in His Word and bring the light of the SON in your life today!

Christians can use their personal prayer life to diagnosis themselves as to whether they are living life with the glass being half full or half empty. Ask yourself, what is the form of my daily prayers? Does my prayer life reflect anxiety by asking God to help me overcome the adversity in my life or do my prayers reflect an emphasis on Jesus’s Hope? This Hope seated in the love, grace, and mercy of a loving God. Visualizing and walking through life’s journey with full dependence on God’s promises. The Hope that never compromises and will never go away, but we must depend on God every moment of every day. Even if we are in the midst of adversity, sickness, depression, loss, or want.

If we are honest with ourselves we’ve all been there. Do something about it today!

Blessings,

Brad

Some of my favorite verses in the Bible are found in Galatians 5, where Paul is teaching us about the fruits of the Spirit.  In Galatians 5: 22-23, Paul writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  Probably my favorite part of that passage is the very last phrase, “Against such things there is no law.” 

Believe it or not, that phrase makes me think of the worst-case scenario that might result from living our lives as believers. Have you ever thought about what might happen if we have falsely placed our belief in the Gospels?  What if we live our lives for Jesus, according to the principles of Scripture, only to die and fade into oblivion – no heavenly reward, no streets of gold; What if nothing awaits us on the other side of death?  Even the apostle Paul contemplates this possibility. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is writing to some who are claiming that Jesus did not rise from the grave, to which Paul responds that if this is true, then our hope in Jesus is false and “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (vs. 19)

Ostensibly, we are the ‘most to be pitied’ because we have placed our hope in a false hope, and it will lead to nothing. However, Galatians 5 tells us something else; What kind of legacy will we leave if we live our lives in such a way that we exhibit the fruits of the Spirit to those around us? Even if we don’t receive the gift of eternal life, we will still show love, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and patience to those in our lives, and that will leave a wonderful legacy where our loved-ones will know that we cherished them, and valued them, and loved them!  If this is the worst-case scenario for my life, then sign me up!

I have always told each of my kids that I love them as much as I can. There is no competition between for my love because I am giving as much of my love to each of them as I can! That is the legacy that I want to leave for them, and I think that the best way that I can do that is to live my life in the faith that I have, believing that Jesus has died for me, and my best response is to live in obedience and submission to him. The life that I then live will exhibit the fruits of the spirit, and will be a blessing to those around me.

This worst-case scenario, however, is not where I want to leave this thought however, because Paul did not stop in 1 Corinthians 15 with the position that Christians are the most to be pitied of all people.  In 1 Corinthians 15: 20-22, Paul says, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”  This is the best-case scenario that comes from living our lives as believers – we have the promise of eternal life!

Everything that scripture calls for us to strive for a) involves what is best for us both individually and collectively, b) leads to a life worth living in the here-and-now, and c) comes with the promise of the inheritance of Jesus Christ – living for all eternity in the presence of the Triune God. This life is not a life of selfish indulgence, but selfishness brings division, and loneliness. It is a life of self-sacrifice as we love others. If we all do that together (live self-sacrificially, giving ourselves to the good of others) we will receive back blessings from many others who will be putting our interests first.  Let’s live our lives together for God!

Communion with the living God is the essence of true worship. 

We are made in God’s image, we were created to have a close one on one relationship with Him; thus, when fellowship is broken, we are incomplete and need restoration. Communion with the living God is the essence of worship, it is vital, touching the very core of our lives. True worship and oneness with God begins as we confess our sin and accept Christ as the only one who can redeem us from sin and help us approach God. 

Worship is multifaceted. 

• We worship God with our daily lives
• We worship God by how our lives relate to others
• We worship God in private confession, public service, and in group celebration. 

Honest pure worship consists of more than just singing or just praise. In John 4:23-24 “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.” So I have to get a grasp of “spirit" and “truth". 

It is the believer’s responsibility to discover how the Lord wants to be worshipped and to explore and cultivate a relationship with Him out of which sincere, Holy Spirit enabled worship will flow. Jesus instructs this: worship in “spirit” – that is alive through new birth and glowing with Holy Spirit enablement. This is not mechanical, rote, or merely human activity but dynamically capacitated spiritual action. “In truth” emphasizes biblical integrity joined to personal honesty, manifested in a heart of sincerity, a humble manner of transparency, and a relational integrity. As I write this, I am struck by how complicated it sounds in my mind. God’s love is the great simplifier of His Word. Learn to rely on God’s love for you. So, I have started to simply draw near to God consistently every day and as scripture says “If we draw near to God, He will draw near to us” James 4:8. I think I can do that. And I think I can trust and depend on God as He takes care for the rest. He loves us with an everlasting Love.

As believers, we are given several commands in the Bible as to who we should love. The good news is that, we are only told to love members of three different groups. 

The first group that we are commanded to love is our brothers and sisters in Christ – we are to love our church family! In 1 John 4: 11, the apostle John writes, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” This first group is probably the easiest group to love, because other believers are much like ourselves! 

The second group that we are commanded to love as believers is our neighbors. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus reveals that the definition of a neighbor is broader than just the person next door. In Luke 29, Jesus tells of a Jewish man who was attacked and beaten by robbers as he was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. A priest and a Levite (both Jews) passed him by, but a Samaritan (with whom the Jews were not supposed to associate) stopped to help him, thereby loving him as a neighbor should. The implication here is that our neighbors include all those who might cross our path – whether they are “like us” or not. This is a bit more challenging, but it is one that our church has tackled via our outreach to our neighbors on Connell Road over the last several years.

The third group that we are commanded to love as believers is our enemies.

Gulp.

In Matthew chapter 5:43-44, Jesus tells us, “You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy’, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” It is this kind of love that Jesus showed to each of us when he came to die for us.  We were all sinners, who had alienated ourselves from God, and yet he chose to sacrifice himself in our place. 

Now, if you look over the list of groups that we are to love – our brothers, our neighbors, and our enemies – you may notice that everyone is included in one of these three groups. We are to love everyone! In high school, I had a Bible teacher (obviously at a Christian school) who was a Ph.D.-level theologian.  He told us that the biblical definition of love (as Jesus had demonstrated) was self-sacrifice – placing others and their needs before ourselves. This is tough to do, but it is exactly what Jesus modeled for us throughout his life, and even in his death.

The best way for us to do this in our lives as believers is to make every effort to show compassion to those around us. There are numerous occasions in the ministry of Jesus that we are told that he saw the people around him and was filled with compassion for them. When he was filled with compassion, he ministered to them and met their earthly needs – feeding them food, healing the sick, etc… There are many things that people of the world are passionate about, and their level of passion for their beliefs can match our own passion for our beliefs. What truly sets us apart in the world as believers is our love – our compassion. This is how we can let our light shine in the world, and point to Jesus!

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season there are those that are struggling with grief, loss, and sadness. It is this group that I believe God would have me speak to today.

God wants you to realize that He loves you just the way you are. 

Hebrews 13:5 reads ”...I will never leave you or forsake you” 

If you will let the truth of that scripture rest in your heart the struggles will leave. God’s light will chase the darkness away. Take a moment today and yield every thought and emotion to Him. He loves you with an everlasting love. Let Him be Lord of your life in every way. Let Him wrap his arms around you and give you rest and peace.

The lyrics of a song written by Jason Crabb express what I am trying share. I love you and so does Jesus. I wish you great blessings as we honor our Savior’s birth, death, and resurrection!

I can’t tell you why you’re walking through this valley

I can’t tell you just how long you’ve gotta stay

I can’t tell you why your heart feels so unsettled or when this all will change

But I can tell you there is something you can lean on

It’s a promise that won’t bend and it won’t break

And it will keep you when the future is uncertain

You’re not out of grace

You see, when the darkness overwhelms you and the fear just won’t subside

When your questions outweigh answers on those long and lonely nights

Friend, you’ve gotta keep on moving He is with you in the valley of despair and He won’t leave you there

He is with you when you think you just won’t make it and He is right there when it looks like hope is lost

You’re gonna find out He’s nothing less than faithful so keep holding on, keep holding on

There has never been a moment

There will never be a day

He’s not strong enough to rescue

He’s not strong enough to save

No, He won’t leave you there

He won’t leave you

He won’t leave you there

Hey Y'all.  This is Bruce Merriman.  Because of  our many daily distractions, here is what is on my heart lately:

A Broadway musical, "Man of La Mancha" ,  based upon a 16th century book, "Don Quixote", produced  a song that became very popular in the 1970's.  That song "The Impossible Dream" was one that inspired the listener to practice perseverance and integrity while on a quest of the utmost importance.  While the theology of the song is not perfect, it does point us in a truly right direction.  The lyrics in part are: 

This is my quest/to follow that star, no matter how hopeless/no matter how far, to fight for the right/ without question or pause, to be willing to march into hell/for a heavenly cause.

As we are in the Advent season and heading toward Christmas, I am very mindful of the account of the Magi in Matthew's gospel.  Some traditions hold that those wise men traveled 800 to 900 miles following that star to complete their quest to locate the Christ Child, The King of the Jews.  The contemporary Christmas Carol says they traveled far over "field and fountain, moor and mountain".  There is no indication that they ever lost sight of that quest to find, present gifts, and worship Jesus.

The collective quest of the eldership at CFC is to be guided by the Holy Spirit in our personal lives and in our leadership here.  This is a quest that requires each of us in this body to not only love Jesus with our whole hearts but to persevere in seeking His direction, comfort, and even correction as we serve Him together. May we never lose this focus "no matter how hopeless no matter how far".

Merry Christmas with love and blessings