November 18, 2017 Saturday

            Last night I was not able to sleep and got up and didn’t get to sleep until about 5AM and woke up about 6AM.  This gave me a good time to pray and to relax some.  When I woke up my eyes were twitching so I had uncontrollable blinking.  This made it hard to walk and I was a little confused.

            Resting today hoping I can go to worship tomorrow.  I am so weary and feel so bad from the bad day and week.  I have got into the routine of watching college football on Saturday.  The college sports are more enjoyable and have less of the “political” touch to them.  And it seems a little confusing that people can get paid so much for playing a kids game!  Just like actors get paid so much pretending to be someone they aren’t.

            Sorry about the rant but I guess I am still a preacher.  My Love still gives me sermons which I share with you.

November 17, 2017 Friday

            This was a very bad day and I spent the day in bed and in a lot of pain.  I felt so weak and weary from the pain and from the twitching and the jerking in most parts of my body.  My muscles were tight most of the day and that makes me very weary and weak.

November 19, 2017 Matthew 25:31-46 Seeing Jesus

24^th Sunday after Pentecost  We see Jesus everyday in the face of those deeply in need. Psalter Reading Psalm 123:1-4

1 Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens. 2Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He has mercy on us. 3Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us! For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. 4Our soul is exceedingly filled With the scorn of those who are at ease, With the contempt of the proud.     Psalm 123:1-4 NKJV

31“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ 37“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ 41“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ 44“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 25:31-46  (NKJV)

Over my years of pastoral ministry so many have wondered why they did not see God in their life and around them.

This parable gives us the answer to that question.  The reason we do not experience Jesus is we look in the wrong places.  We cannot experience Jesus as we huddle in our congregation but in truth where you experience Jesus is as you meet the needy and hurting in the community around you and the world.

We can see ourselves as being good and that we deserve all the blessing God has given to us but as the Psalmist tells us we are just in need of the daily mercy of Jesus as anyone else!  This Psalm is a Psalm of Assent that people would sing as they climbed to Worship at the Temple.  Three times they would cry out for God’s mercy.

All around you people are crying out for God’s mercy!  They are hungry (need the Bread of God), poor (need the riches of God’s grace), broken (need God’s healing) and hurt and destroy others (need God’s forgiveness and His power to change)!

Step out of your comfort zone and offer God’s mercy and love to those in need!  You will not know what to say or to do but God will give you the heart to care, the courage to dare and the words to share!  And there you will experience God!!!

November 16, 2017 Thursday

            This morning I awoke feeling more rested than I have in a long while.  Thanks My Love for the rest!  When I got up My Love asked me to pray for the children of the Philippines again.  It seems more and more God asks me to lift up the children around the world who suffer so much.  In so many places children are sold to molesters and into slavery, at times even by their parents.  Some Muslims do horrendous things to little girls and their mothers even help.

            So often when we think of God we think of Him as judging or so kind.  But I have experienced My Love and seen His love and the tears He cries for those who are hurting!  In the Psalms it says that God has numbered my tears!  Isn’t that amazing!  I can’t remember my tears, but God knows them and has numbered them! God cries for the children who suffer so much and He also weeps for those who hurt them!  Celebrate God’s love by lifting up those He cares for!

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November 15, 2017 Wednesday

            Was in bed by 8PM and didn’t get out of bed until 7AM but still feel weary. Still not hungry but ate an orange so I can take my meds.  Bonnie is in Kodak with her friends from McKendree and I pray she is having a good time.  Though I do believe it is impossible not to!

            The day was a weary one though I was able to get my weekly chores done.  I try to wash our sheets each week.  Bonnie has to take them off so I can wash them.  This gives me a sense of doing something and that I can help Bonnie.

            Lately I have been spending much of my prayer time in worship and praising God!  I can spend a lot of time just praising My Love.  Sometimes I wake up and will spend an hour just praising God!  This time has become the highlight of my days!

Here is the ninth part of The Upside Down World of Theology.  Once again please use this study in any way it is helpful to you and brings a smile to God.

Chapter Eight

Love is decision not a feeling.

            “4 ¶  Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5  does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6  does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 ¶  Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.” (1Corinthians 13:4-8 NKJV)

            Love is usually seen as an emotional or physical attraction or attachment between two people.  I remember this young couple who went through pre-marital counseling with me.  Both of their families didn’t want them to get married.  At the least they wanted them to wait a little while.  I usually ask for each person in a couple to tell me three reasons why they want to marry the other person and one of the reasons cannot be that they love the other and they can’t use the same answers.

            As they struggled to come up with even one reason the girl finally gushed, “Because I get this feeling in my stomach whenever he is around.”  My response was to wonder if maybe she was just allergic to him.

            In 1 Corinthians 13 we have some of the most beautiful writing in all of human time.  Love is defined and shown how it looks as it is lived out.  For LOVE CAN BE SEEN!  Love is not an emotion to be felt but a decision we make at a point in our lives and lived out every day.

            I choose to love someone.  This is not because they are super good looking or because they will make be a better person.  The first is lust and the second is self-centered.  I choose to love someone because I realize that while I need them they also need me.  There are ways I can make them a better person.  Indeed without me they are incomplete just as I am without them.

“26 ¶ Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27 NKJV)

Notice the language.  

Let us make man in our image = the Triune God is expressed in man

Let them = man is more than just one, like God man is a plural

God created man in His own image = the desire came to fruit

In the image of God He created him; male and female He created them= okay this really doesn’t make sense!  He created him; male and female He created them!  But it does!  For Man is not male or female!  Man is the combination and union of a male and a female!  Only truly joined together can Man be the image of God.  Only together can they find union and learn how to live as one though of more than one.  Only together can Man created life as part of the image of God!

The WOW factor

I realize I am starting to get closer to understanding God when the WOW factor kicks in!  Is this not amazing?

Action

            Notice the description Paul gives of love.  And remember that this letter is written to a divisive, carnal and very unchristian group of Christians!

Love    suffers long                 is kind                         does not envy              does not parade itself

            is not puffed up           does not behave rudely           does not seek its own  

is not provoked           thinks no evil                          does not rejoice in iniquity

rejoices in the truth     bears all things           believes all things        hopes all things,

endures all things       Love never fails.

WOW!  You would have to be super-human to do this!  Why you would almost have to be God!  Getting it yet?  Love is a decision by us to act in a Godly manner toward someone and this decision causes us to depend upon God which strengthens our love for God!  Did I just hear a WOW?

Is this why Jesus always ties our love for others with our love for God?

How do you get the help from God to live this way?

Did (and does) Jesus love you in this way?    (Not a yes or no question.)

           

November 14, 2017 Tuesday

            Awoke early but rested through the night.  In preparation for Advent and Christmas I am going through Isaiah where the promise of Jesus is offered and proclaimed.  I want to have this time of preparation for Advent which is a time of preparation for Christmas.  I usually don’t like to start any Christmas things until after Thanksgiving but this year it seems that Thanksgiving is Prelude to Advent.

            The day was long and not good.  I was so weary and later in the day I lost my appetite and didn’t eat.  Before this I never lost my appetite.  Even when I was vomiting if I saw a commercial for food it would sound good.  But now even when I am not nauseous I sometimes don’t get hungry and I have learned to not eat when I feel like this.