Coming to the Still Waters

I'm always looking for pictures to go along with the scripture passage of the day.  I thought this one from  Demi Brooke  fit the bill (no pun intended).  The original picture was in relationship to Hebrews chapter 13 and verses 5 and 6 which read, Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you," so that we confidently say, "The Lord is my Helper, I will not be afraid.  What will man do to me?" What is said in the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament and given to the disciples by the very lips of Jesus again in our passage today.  Here are some more words about "the Helper." Today's Wednesday in the Word will cover John chapter 16 and verses 12 through 15, which read, v.12 - "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Jesus knows that His disciples are o...

A young lady in our church took the "3 Circles" and gave some great design to it.  Woohoo, it is catching on to be thinking through the gospel to be ready to share the gospel. I just finished up a mini-series on what it means Biblically to be a Biblically healthy church.  We looked at the mission, vision, and values of a church grounded in the word of God.  I couldn't help but think while preaching (I know, that is very dangerous to do) that what I was sharing would be repeated from church to church that we would be assigned to.  How the churches of America need to get back to Biblical mission, vision, and values. A summary of this mini-series would be as such.  Our mission is the Great Commission.  Our vision is to be equipped for service and displaying the fruit of the Spirit.  Our values of being devoted to God's word, the fellowship of the church, the worshiping of Christ, the praying to the Father, and the service of one another.  A c...

Jesus tells His disciples that Someone and something is coming toward them. The introduction of the Holy Spirit by Jesus to His disciples and to us should give us great comfort but it also puts us face to face of why we will need the Holy Spirit.  Jesus will share with His disciples what is their fate as He has been sharing His fate in the near future.  I keep reminding myself that it is God's plan and He is in control and therefore don't veer from what He has said.  Stand rather than stumble. Today's Wednesday in the Word covers John chapter 15 and verse 26 through chapter 16 and verse 11, which reads, v.26, 27 - " When the Helper comes, whom I send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning." If my numbers are right, Jesus has told His disciples about the coming Holy Spirit at least 7 times with the fir...

President's Day 2020 and a very quiet morning at Dunkin.  A holiday so the usual crowd is brewing coffee at home this morning.  After a full weekend, I am thankful for some time to collect my thoughts.  The state of Maine also has a week off of school in February so this might be a really different week around town.   There is no perfect church because there are no perfect people.  The people of God make up the church and we mess up at times.  Sometimes we do what we are not suppose to do; we don't respond the way we are suppose to respond; and we don't portray the One who saved us.  What do we do then? The sermon this week looked at the vision of the church.  What should we and they see when we and they look at the occupants of a church and especially those who profess faith in Jesus Christ?  The Bible helps us out with lists that we find the book of Ephesians and Galatians.  Those lists are scary because we probably have be...

The hatred and persecution of the world for being a Christian is hard to take.  Our earthly desire is to hate and persecute back.  How do we keep God's command to love our enemies?  Jesus gives us and His disciples a new way to look at what is really happening when someone says "I don't like you!" Today's Wednesday in the Word will cover John chapter 15 and verses 18 through 25 which read, v.18 - “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you."   After speaking of loving one another, Jesus gives us the reality of the world that we live in.  It is a broken world that runs on hate and some hate is coming the way of the followers of Jesus.  Jesus tells His disciples and us that just as He loved us before we loved Him, He was hated before we were hated.  Jesus has led the way in how to love and also in how to respond to the hate.  We have a Savior who goes before us on both fronts. v.19 - "If you were ...

One of my "front row" people snapped a shot of me this Sunday.  Blows my mind sometimes that I have been doing this for 34 years.  I finished my sermon with the diagram called "The 3 Circles."   Let me insert that pastor who created this way of explaining salvation and the gospel. I added some more graphics and Scripture passages and then encouraged the congregation to draw this presentation over and over again.  When I do it, I speak it through my mind but the next step is to speak it out with another brother or sister in Christ.  Let someone else hear you speak the gospel.  This is a good tool to share with anyone what the Bible actually teaches about God's plan of salvation. Here is a final shot of my rendition of it. A big update from our assignment here in Machias is the development of the search team named yesterday at the annual meeting.  Keep in prayer these names:  Rob, Andrea, Jeff, Chuck, Fred, Lauren, Kristina, and myse...

What a picture!  So many expressions to interpret.  Our passage today calls upon us to have a kind of love that demands a one of a kind example, Jesus Christ.  It also calls upon us to love before being loved.  Who is going to love first when it comes to you and those God has placed around you? Our Wednesday in the Word covers John chapter 15 and verses 12 through 17.  Jesus used the analogy of a vine previously.  He is the vine; we are the branches; and God is the vinedresser.  We have Jesus' joy within us as we love him evident by our obedience to His commandments.  We are branches who are being pruned by God to be even more like His Son. v.12 - "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." Jesus starts and ends this paragraph of thought with the same command to love one another.  This first giving of this command has the qualifier or the example to lay our love up against.  Are we lovi...

Here is the sermon from Sunday on service and spiritual gifts.  I can not stress enough the importance of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ serving alongside of us being used by God to affirm what He has given to us.  I am praying for many of this congregation to flourish in the joy of the Lord because they are participating in the Your Divine Design series. Here is the next installment of the Ezra series.  Ezra gives us a prayer of confession that has principles we need to follow in our day.  Don't minimize your sin and make sure to maximize your God. I can't believe that I am over half-way through my next online masters class through Belhaven University.  This class is covering the Gospels and Acts.  There are more students in the class, so the ZOOM class sessions can be a bit of a ZOO!  This 7 week class will include a total of 5 papers. Each gospel has an original audience.  The Gospel of Mark was written to the Christians...