Notes of Faith July 8, 2024

Notes of Faith July 8, 2024

Light of the World

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

John 8:12

When the Hebrew slaves traveled through the Sinai wilderness, God provided a pillar of cloud to guide them during the day and a pillar of fire to guide them at night (Exodus 13:20-22). The fire in the midst of darkness at night was “to give them light on the road which they should travel” (Nehemiah 9:12).

Jesus reminded the Jews of His day of the need for spiritual light in a spiritually dark world, calling Himself “the light of the world.” The darker the night, the more our need for light. He was reminding them that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Sadly, both in Jesus’ day and in ours, the darkness in this world doesn’t always understand the light of Christ (John 1:3-9). But all who embrace the light of Christ are given the right to become “children of God”

(John 1:12).

Make sure you are a child of God by believing in Christ, by letting His light become the light of your life.

It is no advantage to be near the light if the eyes are closed.

Augustine

This dark world needs to be awakened to the light of the world Jesus Christ. That is the command that all believers have been given. Take the light everywhere you go that the eyes of the world might be opened to life and that eternal!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 7, 2024

Notes of Faith July 7, 2024

The Happiest Person Alive

Rediscovering Divine Blessedness

Article by Mark Jones

Guest Contributor

The seventeenth-century English poet William Habington said, “He who is good is happy.” Indeed. He who is good and abounds in all good things is happiest and most blessed. And because none is good like God is good, none is blessed like God is blessed.

God’s blessedness or felicity (that is, his enjoyment of the highest good) was not given much attention in the work of the Reformers. Even after the time of the Reformation, blessedness does not receive the type of attention that other attributes do. Interestingly, in the medieval period of church history, two of the most famous theologians, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, gave copious attention to God’s blessedness. Others before the medieval period, like Augustine in the early church, were clearly not unaware of this special attribute of God when they connected the highest good with God’s own felicity and blessedness.

We live in a time when a reacquaintance with God’s blessedness could prove extremely useful for pastors and their flocks. This attribute may also function as an evangelistic tool to a generation of people, young and old, who are decidedly not experiencing true blessedness and joy.

Rediscovering Blessedness

Meditating upon God’s blessedness should, in a certain sense, cause us some holy envy of what God possesses. His attributes, as we conceive of them, involve a perfect union of all that is good. So, for example, his blessedness is an unchangeable blessedness, an eternal blessedness, an infinite blessedness, and so on. God’s delight is chiefly in himself as a fully self-sufficient being who needs nothing because he possesses everything. The apostle Paul speaks of “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” and calls God “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 1:11; 6:15).

The idea of blessedness as the union of all good things is not particularly difficult to understand. If we could conceive of a good God who is unable to effect good because he lacks the power to do so, he would not be happy but miserable. Or consider a God both holy and merciful but lacking the wisdom to be both just and the justifier of sinners — he also would be miserable. God is a perfect being insofar as his attributes are not in competition with one another, but instead gloriously harmonize in a way that can only mean he is blessed above all.

Theologians refer to God as a fully actualized being such that he is not just blessed but infinitely blessed. He cannot be more or less blessed than he is. Where unchangeable and infinite holiness, justice, power, knowledge, wisdom, and goodness exist, there must be blessedness.

Blessed Knowledge

God enjoys blessedness because there is no ignorance in him. He knows himself fully. As Stephen Charnock says,

The blessedness of God consists not in the knowledge of anything without him but in the knowledge of himself and his own excellency, as the principle of all things. If, therefore, he did not perfectly know himself and his own happiness, he could not enjoy a happiness. For to be and not to know to be is as if a thing were not. “He is God blessed forever” (Romans 9:5) and therefore forever had a knowledge of himself. (The Existence and Attributes of God, 624)

God is blessed because he fully knows his blessedness. God’s life is “most happy,” as the Reformed theologian Benedict Pictet said. Anyone who understands true happiness will affirm that God is “most happy” since he is “in need of nothing, finds all comfort in himself, and possesses all things; is free from evil, and filled with all good” (Theologia Christiana Benedicti Picteti, 2.4.7).

“Unlike humans, God does not need anything outside of himself to make him happy and blessed.”

Unlike humans, God does not need anything outside of himself to make him happy and blessed. The blessedness in this universe, wherever it may be, is from God and can only be from God. Even the human nature of Christ receives its happiness from the divine essence. As Edward Leigh once said, “The human nature of Christ himself in heaven . . . lives in God, and God in it, in a full dependence on God, and receiving blessed and glorious communications from him” (A Treatise of Divinity, 2:200).

Trinitarian Blessedness

When we say that God is “most blessed” we are affirming that the Father, Son, and Spirit all equally possess this infinite happiness. There is no divine attribute that belongs to one person and not another.

John Owen, who never shied away from his robust Trinitarian theology, speaks of the blessedness of God as the “ineffable [that is, indescribable] mutual inbeing of the three holy persons in the same nature, with the immanent reciprocal actings of the Father and the Son in the eternal love and complacency of the Spirit” (Works of John Owen, 1:325). The reciprocal love between the persons makes them blessed. True love is the ground for true happiness. The one who loves most is most happy.

We worship and serve a most happy God, which should make us happy. We bow before the three persons knowing they are not distressed like the pagan gods but rather full of joy, which is good news for us. God is not just happy but free from all miseries. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). God knows his perfect blessedness, which means he also knows he cannot not be blessed. It is impossible for any misery to ever be in God.

Christ’s Blessedness

Affirming God’s blessedness raises an important question for us regarding our Savior, Jesus Christ. We drink from God’s blessedness because Christ drank in our misery as the God-man. God sent his Son to make us happy. But what, then, can we say about Christ’s own felicity, joy, and blessedness?

Was not Christ “a man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3)? Or was he a man of joy at the same time? While possessing a human nature allows for the experience of real misery, we should also think of our Savior as a man of joy who was always aware of his blessedness. Christ was always joyful and therefore blessed while on earth, even though he was also acquainted with grief.

As one who received the Spirit without measure (John 3:34), he would necessarily have been joyful (Galatians 5:22). As one free from sin, he did not possess the miseries of a sinful nature; rather, he was holy, innocent, and unstained (Hebrews 7:26). He would have been supremely satisfied in his holiness, which he received from the Father through the Spirit. Our Lord also knew that he was doing God’s will (John 4:34; 17:4), which brings joy and blessedness. Even going to the cross, Christ had joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2). Knowing that all he was doing would lead to the salvation of his bride would be cause for great felicity. At one time, we read of Jesus rejoicing in the Spirit because the Father had revealed to “little children” the salvation accomplished through defeating the devil (Luke 10:18–21; Hebrews 2:14).

Our Lord was and especially now is a blessed man, the most blessed man.

His Blessedness Is Ours

What does the church gain by recovering blessedness today? There is no denying that we are living in a day when people are lacking joy. Depression is on the rise, and many are coping in unhealthy ways with their miseries.

We believe that God is the fountain of all blessedness and joy. We cannot experience true joy in this life until the triune God becomes our God. We are only as happy or miserable as the God we serve. Blessedness is not only something God is but something he offers, appropriate to our creaturely condition. God has decided to offer the best to us in and through his Son, Jesus Christ, which we can receive by our union with him and the Spirit’s dwelling in our hearts.

George Swinnock wisely states,

Those who serve the flesh as their god are miserable (Romans 16:18; Philippians 3:18) because their god is vile, weak, deceitful, and transitory (Psalm 49:20; 73:25; Isaiah 31:3; Jeremiah 17:9). Similarly, those who prize the world as their god are miserable because their god is vain, troublesome, uncertain, and fleeting (Ecclesiastes 1:2–3; 5:10; 1 Corinthians 7:29–31; 1 Timothy 6:9–10). But those who have an interest in this great God are happy: “Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 144:15). (The Blessed and Boundless God, 167)

The Lord Jesus received his happiness from God through the Spirit. We receive our happiness from God, in Christ, through the Spirit. This blessedness is the only blessedness worth having because it comes from an inexhaustible fountain overflowing into our hearts, a joy that will be ours forever.

Many people think that riches or prestige will make them blessed, but those gifts easily turn into curses when God is not put first. And it is hard to put God first when we receive riches and prestige. Unless we receive the greatest gift that God can give — his Son — we cannot receive any blessing well. David understood this in Psalm 16. He speaks of how the lines fell for him in pleasant places (verse 6), but only in the context of enjoying the Lord as his “chosen portion” (verse 5). At God’s right hand are pleasures forevermore (verse 11), which is how one may be truly blessed in this life and the life to come.

And we should not forget who is at God’s right hand now: the exalted Christ. At God’s right hand is his greatest pleasure, his Son, and we are most like the Father when we love what he loves, which is true blessedness.

True happiness can only be found in God. This temporal life has many reasons to be sad, and all have their source in sin, the first sin and spiritual separation of man from God. God has provided life and all that brings true happiness in His Son Jesus the Christ. Know Him…and find true happiness!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 6, 2024

Notes of Faith July 6, 2024

The Surrender of Paul

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

Philippians 3:8

The idea of surrender is to choose not to resist and to submit to authority. We think of surrender most readily in military terms, but surrender is also experienced personally.

The most consequential act of surrender in history happened when Jesus chose not to resist His Father’s will for Him to die on a cross: “Nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). All disciples of Jesus are called to surrender in the same way—to be willing to take up our own cross (Luke 14:27). Paul’s surrender to Christ is the most dramatic in history. Having been the chief persecutor of Christ’s followers, Paul surrendered to Christ beginning with an encounter on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19). That act led to a lifetime of surrender in which he gave up everything in order to live for Christ.

If you are a disciple of Christ, contemplate the degree of your surrender to Him and any resistance you feel.

I surrender all, I surrender all; all to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.

Judson W. Van de Venter

Phil 2:5-11

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

We must surrender to recognize that we are sinners in need of a Savior. There is a God who is higher than any earthly authority and power and is to be worshipped and praised and given thanks for the life we have. Submission is a good thing. If Christ can submit to His Father even to death, we can submit to receive a true life that is offered through believing in Christ. Begin or grow in your relationship with Jesus today. Become more intimate with Him to truly know Him and His love for you. Your choice to submit will bring you the glory of God!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 5, 2024

Notes of Faith July 5, 2024

Jesus Under Pressure

If you’ve ever had a day in which you’ve been blitzkrieged by demands... if you’ve ever ridden the roller coaster of sorrow and celebration... if you’ve ever wondered if God in heaven can relate to you on earth, then take heart.

Jesus knows how you feel.

In the Gospels, we read of a time when Jesus began the morning by hearing about the death of John the Baptist: His cousin, His forerunner, His coworker, His friend (see Matthew 14:1–13). The man who came closer to understanding Jesus than any other was dead.

Imagine losing the one person who knows you better than anyone else, and you will feel what Jesus was feeling. Reflect on the horror of being told that your dearest friend has just been murdered, and you will relate to Jesus’ sorrow. Consider your reaction if you were told that your best friend had just been decapitated by a people-pleasing, incestuous monarch, and you’ll see how the day began for Christ. His world was beginning to turn upside down.

The emissaries brought more than news of sorrow, however; they brought a warning: The same Herod who took John’s head is interested in Yours.

Listen to how Luke presents the monarch’s madness:

Herod said, ‘I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?’ And he tried to see Him. — Luke 9:9, emphasis added

Something tells me that Herod wanted more than a social visit.

So, with John’s life taken and His own life threatened, Jesus chose to get away for a while. But before He could get away, His disciples arrived. Mark states that the

apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to Him all they had done and taught. — Mark 6:30

They returned exuberant. Jesus had commissioned them to proclaim the gospel and authenticate it with miracles.

They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. — Mark 6:12–13

In a matter of moments, Jesus’ heart went from the pace of a funeral dirge to the triumphant march of a ticker-tape parade.

Look who followed the disciples to locate Jesus. About five thousand men plus women and children (see Matthew 14:21)! Rivers of people cascaded out of the hills and villages. Some scholars estimate the crowd was as high as twenty-five thousand.6 They swarmed around Jesus, each with one desire: to meet the Man who had empowered the disciples.

What had been a calm morning now buzzed with activity.

So many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat. — Mark 6:31

I’ve had people demand my attention. I know what it’s like to have a half-dozen kids wanting different things at the same time. I know the feeling of receiving one call with other people waiting impatiently on other lines. I even know what it’s like to be encircled by a dozen or so people, each making a separate request.

But twenty-five thousand? That’s larger than many cities! No wonder the disciples couldn’t eat. I’m surprised they could breathe!

The morning had been a jungle trail of the unexpected. First, Jesus grieved over the death of a dear friend and relative. Then His life was threatened by Herod. Next, He celebrated the triumphant return of His followers. Then He was nearly suffocated by a brouhaha of humanity. Bereavement... jeopardy... jubilation... bedlam.

Jesus knows how you feel.

Are you beginning to see why I call this the second most stressful day in the life of Christ? And it’s far from over. Jesus decided to take the disciples to a quiet place where they could rest and reflect. He shouted a command over the noise of the crowd:

Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. — Mark 6:31

The thirteen fought their way to the beach and climbed into a boat.

Who would question Jesus’ desire to get away from the people? He just needed a few hours alone. Just a respite. Just a retreat. Time to pray. Time to ponder. Time to weep. A time without crowds or demands. A campfire wreathed with friends. An evening with those He loved. The people could wait until tomorrow.

The people, however, had other ideas.

The crowds learned about it and followed Him. — Luke 9:11

It’s a six-mile walk around the northeastern corner of the Sea of Galilee, so the crowd took a hike. When Jesus got to Bethsaida, his desired retreat had become a roaring arena. “Surprise!”

Add to the list of sorrow, peril, excitement, and bedlam the word interruption. Jesus’ plans were interrupted. What He had in mind for His day and what the people had in mind for His day were two different agendas. What Jesus sought and what Jesus got were not the same.

Sound familiar? Remember when you sought a night’s rest and got a colicky baby? Remember when you sought to catch up at the office and got even further behind? Remember when you sought to use your Saturday for leisure but ended up fixing your neighbor’s sink?

Take comfort, friend. It happened to Jesus, too. In fact, this would be a good time to pause and digest this important truth:

Jesus knows how you feel.

Ponder this and use it the next time your world goes from calm to chaos. His pulse has raced. His eyes have grown weary. His heart has grown heavy. He has had to climb out of bed with a sore throat. He has been kept awake late and has gotten up early. He knows how you feel.

You may have trouble believing that. You probably believe that Jesus knows what it means to endure heavy-duty tragedies. You are no doubt convinced that Jesus is acquainted with sorrow and has wrestled with fear. Most people accept that. But can God relate to the hassles and headaches of my life? Of your life?

For some reason, that is harder to believe. Perhaps that is why portions of this day are recorded in all the Gospel accounts. No other event, other than the crucifixion, is told by all four Gospel writers. Not Jesus’ baptism. Not His temptation. Not even His birth. But all four writers chronicle this day.

It’s as if Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John knew that you would wonder if God understands. And they proclaim their response in four-part harmony: Jesus knows how you feel.

Jesus knows how it feels to endure through stress-filled days.

Jesus faced many interruptions and demands on his time.

Jesus can relate to the hassles and headaches of your life.

Jesus can help you get through your angst-ridden days.

Excerpted from Experiencing the Heart of Jesus by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

Read the gospels over and over. Follow the life of Jesus, His leading, His choices, His work, His emotions. Then imitate Him in your own life. Reading the gospels many times will help us learn from the life of Jesus. We were created to be a reflection of Jesus.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 4, 2024

Notes of Faith July 4, 2024

Am Your Reward

I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.

Genesis 15:1

One day the famous existentialist philosopher Albert Camus confessed to Pastor Howard Mumma that he was disillusioned with his own philosophical conclusions. Mumma listened, then began sharing with Camus the story of the Bible, starting with Adam and Eve. Suddenly Camus brightened up and said, “Howard, do you remember what Augustine said: ‘Thou has made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee’?” Mumma wondered whether Camus was on the road to becoming a believer in Christ.1

For once, Camus was right. God has made us for Himself, and our hearts are restless until we find Him. We’re made to be satisfied by knowing God and accepting His Son, Jesus Christ. Some people try to fill the emptiness in their hearts with other things, but Jesus wants to be the very substance of who you are and what you are. You simply have to say, “Yes.”

He Himself is your reward. Thank Him today for this: He so fills the emptiness in our hearts that we don’t need anything else.

Christianity is the measure of our whole being, and, as such, it is a process that consumes a lifetime.

Howard Mumma

Jesus is the creator of all that is, including us, especially us, for we are the only thing He created in His own image. You are created to reflect the glory of God! We find peace and rest in this life through knowing intimately the One who will provide us escape from the debt and penalty of rebellion and sin against God and take us out of death and darkness into light and life. May we all consider the claims of Jesus to be God, to be doing the work of God, and to provide life and that eternal. If we do not, we have nothing to look forward to but suffering and separation from God forever. May Jesus Christ be praised this day and every day!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 3, 2024

Notes of Faith July 3, 2024

Bread of Life

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”

John 6:35

The Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de León, was supposedly searching for the fountain of youth when he explored Florida in 1513. An antidote to death has always been a human aspiration.

When Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:51), His words caused no small disturbance—even among His true followers (John 6:61, 66). Jesus wasn’t promising the avoidance of physical death but spiritual death. And He wasn’t suggesting that eating His physical body was the way to consume the “bread” of which He spoke. He spoke of spiritual, eternal life and His own impending death for the sins of the world.

We “consume” Jesus by believing in Him: “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25).

When we preach Jesus Christ, oh! Then we are not putting out the plates, and the knives and the forks for the feast, but we are handing out the bread itself.

Charles Spurgeon

The Son of God is the Messiah/Savior of the world. He came to earth to die for the rebellion/sin against God by mankind. All sin and fall short of the holy perfection of God! Repenting and believing that Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the grave and lives eternally for your sake brings you forgiveness of your sin, victory over death and life forever with the God that created you. The revelation of Jesus is spoken of throughout the Bible starting in the beginning. It is He that created what we see and enjoy according to the gospel of John chapter 1 verse 1 and the first words of Genesis. And He is mentioned again as the One who will come and destroy the work of the devil in Genesis chapter three. The devil’s lying and deceit led to the sin of man/woman and all thereafter earning the judgment of death and separation from God for all eternity. We are created to be eternal beings, existing in the mind of God before a word of creation was spoken. He knows how we will respond to revelation of truth about Him and what He has created and planned. Make sure that you read (a Bible), hear, and respond to the truth of God. His desire is for you to come to Him, that you might repent of your sin and be saved.

Come to Jesus. That is my prayer for any who might read this. Discover intimate relationship with God as you read your Bible every day!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 2, 2024

Notes of Faith July 2, 2024

Who Christ Is

Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

John 8:58

Consider how often we use the phrase, “I am,” in conversation. It is interesting to note that God used the phrase “I AM” in answering a question from Moses who wanted to know how to identify God to the Hebrew slaves. God’s answer was, “I AM WHO I AM.” Moses was to tell them, “I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14).

I AM is full of theological significance when applied to God. And Jesus used that significance to identify Himself to the Jews as being one with God: “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). So holy were these words to the Jews that they tried unsuccessfully to stone Him (John 8:59). Jesus went on to expand on the meaning of I AM by using the phrase seven times to describe aspects of His being: I am the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Door, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the True Vine.

Meditating on each of these aspects of God’s Person in Christ reveals untold riches about who He is and what He does.

God is not the great I WAS, He is the great I AM.

Eric Alexander

God is, has always been, and will always be, whether we want to believe in Him, submit to His authority over us, or have a personal relationship with Him or not.

I AM are powerful words given to us in the Bible representing truth of God. God is not something that we make up in our mind, something that we create to fit the lifestyle we live, that makes us comfortable with our choices and decisions, that makes us feel warm and fuzzy. He is! We cannot make Him who we want Him to be. Through His Word, through prayer, real relationship (the reason we were created), we can begin to know God, His character, His sovereignty, His love, and multiple pages of other attributes. We need to recognize that God is and we are not Him. Since He is in control of all that exists, we must submit to His authority and seek to do His will, learning and growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ who left heaven to take on human flesh, live the life we live (without any sin), give His life as a payment for the debt we owe God for our sin against Him, and through believing in Jesus’ work, be forgiven and have opportunity to follow Jesus, turning from our sins, seeking to do the righteous things of God, understanding His promise to take us to be with Him forever… eternal life!

We must know God is!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 1, 2024

Notes of Faith July 1, 2024

Never Ending

But You are the same, and Your years will have no end.

Psalm 102:27

Stephen Charnock, a seventeenth-century Puritan, gave a series of lectures about the qualities of God. He died before finishing his talks, but afterward his discourses were published as a massive book entitled The Existence and Attributes of God. Speaking of God’s eternity, Charnock said, “God is without end. He always was, always is, and always will be what he is. He remains always the same in being; so far from any change, that no shadow of it can touch him.”1

The title I AM speaks of God’s self-existence and eternal being. There has never been a time when God was not. He’s the same through all the ages. There will never be a time when God ceases to be God. He is Jehovah, Yahweh, I AM. With our mouths we can say those words, but they are beyond our full comprehension—as it should be for an infinite God.

Because He has no ending, He’s able to impart eternal life to His children. Give thanks for His consistent, eternal nature. What would we do without it!

As immensity is the diffusion of his essence, so eternity is the duration of his essence, and when we say God is eternal, we exclude from him all possibility of beginning and ending, all flux and change.

Stephen Charnock

1. Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, Volumes 1 & 2 (Good Press, 2020).

Our God is eternal, having no beginning or end. Though the human mind does not have ability to understand that fully, it does not change the truth of who God is. His calling Himself to Moses, “I Am” is a statement of eternal existence, always was, always will be, no beginning, no end. The attributes of God are extremely important for our understanding of relationship with Him. In His eternal existence, He does not change. His character remains the same. His will remains the same. His working with His creation is perfect throughout what we describe as time and years and He remains the same. Let us give praise and worship the God who does not change!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 30, 2024

Notes of Faith June 30, 2024

Never Walking Alone

When the way just ahead of you seems too difficult, turn to Me and say: “I can’t, but we (You and I together) can.” Acknowledging your inability to handle things on your own is a healthy dose of reality. However, this is only one part of the equation, because a sense of inadequacy by itself can be immobilizing. The most important part of the equation is recognizing My abiding Presence with you and My desire to help you.

Pour out your heart to Me. Ask Me to carry your burdens and show you the way forward. Don’t waste energy worrying about things that are beyond your control. Instead, use that energy to connect with Me. Seek My Face continually. Be ready to follow wherever I lead, trusting Me to open up the way before you as you go.

Dare to see your inadequacy as a door to My Presence. View your journey as an adventure that you share with Me. Remain in close communication with Me, enjoying My company as we journey together.

Philippians 4:13 NKJV; Psalm 62:8; Psalm 105:4 NASB

Thank Me for all the challenges in your life. They are gifts from Me — opportunities to grow stronger and more dependent on Me. Most people think that the stronger they get, the less dependent they will be. But in My Kingdom, strength and dependence go hand in hand. This is because you were designed to walk close to Me as you journey through your life. Challenging circumstances highlight your neediness and help you rely on My infinite sufficiency.

When circumstances are tough and you rise to the occasion, trusting in Me, you are blessed.

It’s exhilarating to get through challenges that you thought were too much for you. When you do so in reliance on Me, our relationship grows stronger.

Your success in handling difficulties also increases your sense of security. You gain confidence that you and I together can cope with whatever hard times the future may bring. You are ready for anything and equal to anything through the One who infuses inner strength into you. Rejoice in My sufficiency!

James 1:2 MSG; Psalm 31:14-16; Philippians 4:13 AMP

When circumstances are tough and you rise to the occasion, trusting in Me, you are blessed.

Do what you can, and leave the rest to Me. When you’re embroiled in a difficult situation, pour out your heart to Me, knowing that I listen and I care. Rely on Me, your ever-present Help in trouble. Refuse to let your problem become your main focus, no matter how anxious you are to solve it. When you’ve done all you can for the time being, the best thing is simply to wait — finding refreshment in My Presence. Don’t fall for the lie that you can’t enjoy life until the problem has been resolved. In the world you have trouble, but in Me you may have Peace — even in the midst of the mess!

Your relationship with Me is collaborative: you and I working together. Look to Me for help and guidance, doing whatever you can and trusting Me to do what you cannot do. Instead of trying to force things to a premature conclusion, relax and ask Me to show you the way you should go — in My timing. Hold My hand in confident trust, beloved, and enjoy the journey in My Presence.

Psalm 62:8; Psalm 46:1; John 16:33 NET; Psalm 143:8

Excerpted from Jesus Always by Sarah Young, copyright Sarah Young.

We were never meant to experience life alone. We are created for community. We are born into a family. It might not be the best experience, the form for which God created it, but it is a form of community that He gives for us to know Him. We live in neighborhoods, go to schools, have many opportunities for gathering together with others to share ideas, hopes, and dreams. This would include the church, where we also are meant to gather as family, helping to meet the needs of one another and encourage one another in our daily lives. May we trust God and lean on Him for every need. He is our heavenly Father. Jesus promised never to leave us or forsake us…we are never alone.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 29, 2024

Notes of Faith June 29, 2024

June Bloom: Our Attitudes

This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

Motivational expert Zig Ziglar said, “Make today worth remembering.” When we awaken in the morning, our physical energy may be low, and our emotions may be flat. Some nights we don’t sleep well, and some days are cloudy. But we can say aloud as our feet hit the floor: “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Turn your mouth into a smile while you get your robe tied. Take a moment to smell the coffee grounds. And put on some Christian music as your shower and dress.

Every morning God plants you in a new day. You need to bloom a little! After all, He sends showers of blessings, He feeds you with His Word, and sooner or later His sun will shine down and warm your heart.

If you decide in your mind to begin the day cheerfully, your feelings will catch up with your choices and your energy will follow suit. Why not say right now: “This is the day the Lord has made”?

Be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant.

Unknown

1 Thess 5:16-18

16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus

The way we start the day usually charts the course for the day. How do you start it? May I suggest: prayer, worship, thankfulness, singing, asking that you follow God’s plans and that the plans you make be because you have listened to God and made His plans your plans. Don’t wake up grumpy. Not your spouse…you! You have a choice to meet the day in and with the grace of almighty God!

Pastor Dale