In parts I & II of this Pastor’s Desk, we discussed how God continually searches out mankind and questions their whereabouts. He does this so that man can have the opportunity to take an honest assessment of his life situation. In other words, is he abiding in God or is he going his own way? Is he full of joy or is he being oppressed by the world, sin and the devil? Is he wandering aimlessly through his life or is he on the path of Life?

If he knows that he shouldn’t be where he is at, he may not respond to God’s inquiry with enthusiasm. But if he is abiding in the secret place of the Most High, if he is sheltered under God’s shadow, his cry comes with great excitement and anticipation.

It is one thing to be in prayer and to be talking to God. It is quite another to have God talk to you! (Grant it, I believe that God would talk to us more, if only we would take the time to listen. ) Isn’t it funny though, how the world thinks that when a man talks to God, he is religious. But when God talks to the man, they deem him crazy.

Well, in the end, God will show who the crazies are. I think that if a man has opportunity to escape eternal damnation and willfully refuses – he’s crazy. When we have Divine Help to get through this tough life and try to accomplish it on our own –we’re crazy. When God is asking our whereabouts and we hide amongst the fig leaves of this world, we are definitely the crazy ones. Never concern yourselves over foolish worldly opinions; it is God’s that you should be concerned about.

So, why would God ask us our whereabouts while we are resting in Him? He does it to comfort us, strengthen us and to commission us. When God asked Elijah what he was doing at the mouth of the cave, Elijah told God that he was done. He was weary and besides that; he was the only one left in Israel that served God.

Here we have a scene of a servant of God who had been beaten down by the world. A man of faith, entrusted to carry the Word of God was now weary and worn. He was spiritually drained and running for his life from murderous threats. But God was showing him that He would take care of His own.

He fed Elijah in the desert for He knew that his journey would be long. He hid him away in a cave, far away from those who would seek his life. God was so gentle with Elijah that Elijah felt he could voice his complaint.

God knows that we get weary and He knows that our labor for Him is very demanding and unappreciated by the world. Throughout the Bible, men and women of God have been commissioned to tasks that seemed insurmountable. But can’t you see? This is so we would rely on Him rather than ourselves.

Why is it that we think that God may be upset with us because we are tired and spiritually worn out? He has done this before! He knows the world will not accept our message. For Pete’s sake, let God strengthen you as you rest in His Presence.

After Elijah was strengthened, God put things back into right perspective for him. As Elijah stood at the mouth of the cave, there was a great wind that passed by – but God was not in the wind. Next, there was a great earthquake and a fire, but God was not in either of them. Then, Elijah heard the gentleness of the whisper of God and fell to his knees and hid his face.

This tells me that God can do more for us with the whisper of His voice than any force here on earth ever could. I don’t need to see a sign – I need to hear the Voice of God! When God strengthened Elijah, then put things back into perspective, He was then able to commission the prophet for another job.

Folks, God knows His work isn’t easy. He knows that it takes its toll on us; this is why Paul tells us not to be weary in well doing for in due season, if we faint not, we shall receive our reward.

Listen, we will never be comforted and strengthened by God if we do not admit that the job got the best of us. Remember this, saints of God, God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love that you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them.

There is one more thing you need to remember: God knows where you are!

Have a great week! Pastor Jim

Last week we learned that God seeks the individual and confronts him with the question, “Where are you?” He does this not for His benefit, but for theirs. God knows where we are; He knows everything! The question is: do we know where we are?

Now, when a man or woman has given their heart to the Lord, we can know that God has surely found them and has already confronted them with this all important question. But God doesn’t stop once we become born-again; He still questions us on our whereabouts. He does this because He knows the potential we have in living closer to Him.

We all must understand that we brought baggage with us into the kingdom of heaven. We all had carnal minds, selfish ambitions, and even sinful desires when we became born-again. Sure, God forgave us of those things but we carried them in our lives long before we became Christians and like weeds with deep roots, some of these things are hard to pull out of our lives. God never said we had to get them out before He would accept us. God accepted us while we were still sinners. He showed us mercy while we acted like brute beasts. He gave us grace so that we could hear His voice and understand Him in our hearts.

When we became Christians, we were like silver that had just been mined from the earth –full of dross. The miner gathers the raw material and places it in the crucible and turns up the heat. The dross separates from the silver and rises to the top to be seen. Then, the miner skims the dross from atop the silver and now he has material ready to fashion into any kind of vessel that he needs.

Do you see where I am going with this? When we became Christians, there was still plenty of worldly dross in our lives. God turns up the heat as we approach His Holy Light. Our sinful ways are exposed by this Light and seen clearly by us, so that we may remove them from our lives. This process is not fun. It is not exciting; it is hard, sometimes humiliating and even at times –nauseating! Sometimes, after God gets through with me, after He shows me how worldly I still am, all I can think is, “I’m so sick of me.”

But I have hope! I have a better hope by which I draw near to God. I know that even after He has revealed to me my sinful ways –He still loves and accepts me as a son. “Remove the dross and draw near to Me!” He says with excitement. Now here is where our responsibility lies. When God has us at this place, we can either turn aside and remain as we are, or we can remove the dross and be blessed!

Sure, no one likes discipline at the time it is given. No one thinks it’s great fun to go under the Surgeon’s Knife, but the benefits far out weigh the discomfort. Drawing closer to God is like climbing a mountain, the higher you climb the more magnificent the view! The potential of blessedness ultimately lies with God, but He has given us opportunity to become truly blessed in Him while we travel this journey Home.

Where are you on this journey? Are you settling for who you are, or are you drawing ever closer to the image and likeness of your Creator?

Have a great week!
Pastor Jim

God has been searching for man since the beginning of time. When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, God went searching right away for him. “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’”

Now, we understand that God knows all things and so, we know that He knew exactly where Adam and Eve were. So, why did He ask them where they were? I’ll tell you.

God wanted Adam to realize where he was and admit to how and why he got there. But, as we all know, God got a bunch of excuses.

“I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” So God asked him how did he know that he was naked; did he eat from the tree that God commanded him not to eat from?

And again, God got excuses. “The woman you put here with me –she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” We must pay careful attention here at Adam’s response because it is exactly this kind of response that keeps people from realizing the blessedness that is found in the presence of God.

Adam was full of guilt and so he hid. When he knew that he could not hide from God, he tried to hide his guilt. He actually blames God for putting the woman there because, after all, it was the woman who gave him some of the fruit of the tree. Adam did not take the responsibility for his own actions; and this is how he tried to hide his guilt.

Man has been hiding his guilt for the last six thousand years and, if you ask me, has gotten pretty good at it.
We have gone so far as to even turn it around and ask God, “What right do you have to question my actions?”

It is important for the Church not to fall in to this grave error. Oftentimes people believe that their actions are justified because they are “under the Blood” and therefore, God will not judge their sin. They become mere hearers of the Word but the Word is not effectively at work in them.

The Word cannot change them because “that’s just the way that I am.” Lives are full of anger, jealousy, depression, anxiety and hopelessness.

Why are the people of the world still trying to cover themselves with the self-righteous fig leaves of their own making? And that is exactly what it is! When a person believes that they can act any way they want and still go to Heaven, then they are being more self-righteous than anyone who is in the Church.

Those in the Church believe that they are not going to Heaven on their merit but on the promise of Jesus Christ. Those in the Church abide in the shadow of the Almighty and dwell in His secret place!

They know that there are eternal pleasures at His Right Hand. They have a joy unspeakable and that joy is full of glory.

They have no need for complaining and they are full of thanksgiving and peace. The light in their eyes –is light. They love to hear from God’s Word and the Bible is their most read reading material.

They love to fellowship with people of like precious faith and sing the songs that remind them of their Savior. Said simply, they are in Heaven here on earth. “Where are you?”

Have a great week!
Pastor Jim

I think that fleas are overrated. We have flea markets, flea sprays, flea circuses and even our dogs and cats have fleas. There are over 2,000 different species of this little parasite in the world. A few weeks ago our church was infested with what seemed like millions of the little vermin. I was beside myself. I thought, “People have enough problems in their lives; they don’t need to come to Church and get another one!”

I remember the story of a little boy who was listening to his Sunday School teacher tell the story of Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. As she told the class that the Angels of the Lord commanded Lot to get his wife and daughters and flee from the city, the children listened intently. When the sun rose, Lot and his family escaped but his wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. The little boy’s hand shot up and the teacher asked him what his question was. “Well, ma’am,” he said with concern. “I’m glad that they escaped, but what happened to the flea?”

Yes, indeed, what happened to the fleas? I called the exterminator on Saturday and all the fleas were dead by Saturday night; or so we thought. About a week and a half later someone discovered that the fleas were thriving again in the basement. I called the exterminator back and we went to the basement. He had missed the supply closet when he sprayed the first time so the fleas that were living in there survived. If I wouldn’t have called him back, the church would still have fleas. And, given enough time, they would have infested the church again. The exterminator apologized that he missed the closet in the first place but I told him that it was quite understandable; the closet was so small. Nevertheless, the fleas survived in there and would have caused us problems down the road if they were not completely destroyed.

You know, that little flea problem is a lot like that “little” sin problem that has infested the world. When a person gives their life over to Jesus, He forgives them of all their sin; even the sin that they are unaware of; sin that has infested and taken over their lives. Sin that makes people think the way they think and do the things they do. Paul didn’t blame the devil for making him do the things he didn’t want to do; he blamed sin. (Ro.7:20)

Sure, we remove from our lives those big obvious sins such as lust, drunkenness, swearing, and fornication. There are just certain things that you don’t do as a Christian. But what about those “little sins” that we had acquired over the years that lie hidden in the supply closets of our hearts; sins like pride, anger, envy and greed. Apathy is a sin that lies in the supply closet of the heart. Doesn’t the Bible say, to him that knows to do good but doesn’t, to him that is sin? Homosexuality was the last straw for Sodom. Their sin began with arrogance, gluttony and lack of concern (apathy).

When we give our lives to Christ we should allow Him the freedom to every space in our hearts to circumcise every little sin that can bring us trouble down the road. This is why David said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” And again, “Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.”

You know, I tried to fix the flea problem at church by myself. I wasn’t capable enough and I didn’t have the right stuff; so I called the exterminator and he was able to eradicate the little buggers. It is the same with the little sins that hide in our lives. We are not capable within ourselves to completely eradicate our sin, we need the Exterminator of sin and I only know of One. So, who you gonna call?


Have a great week!
Pastor Jim

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me.” My mother would give me that little adage to comfort me after the neighborhood bully had verbally assaulted me. While growing up I was called names and teased by schoolmates and friends and even brothers and sisters. And let me tell you; that little adage never really helped!

Words can harm and words can hurt. Solomon said that the tongue had the power of life and death. He also said that reckless words pierce like a sword and a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. (Pr.12:18; 15:4)

James tells us that the tongue is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. (Ja.3:6)

Didn’t Jesus even tell us that every idle word that we spoke would be judged?

Forget the nonsense that “words can never harm you.” That little adage is a hollow philosophy that gets you thinking more about your physical well being rather than your character, which is who you really are!

Robin and I were watching this B-grade science fiction movie the other day and God came up within the dialogue. The one actor was questioning the goodness and love of God. He said that it was something that he had learned growing up and believed all his life. Now, that he was in this difficult situation (remember, this was just a movie) he wasn’t sure that what he believed about God was true. He said that he had no hope in the goodness and love of God.

Even though this was just a movie, people hear these words and receive them into their spirits. Then, the next thing you know, while they are going through some dilemma in real life, they begin to question the goodness of God. Don’t be quick to say that it doesn’t happen to you. I wouldn’t even want to challenge you to listen to the nightly news for a month straight because I know what it would do to your spirit.

One of the most deceiving tricks of the enemy would be to get you and I to believe that we are immune to the encroaching darkness of this world. Well, we’re not! Just because we have the light of Truth doesn’t mean that we can’t be deceived.

Listen again to Solomon; “Stop listening to instruction, my son and you will stray from the words of knowledge.” If we continue to listen to the world and neglect the counsel of God, you can be sure that one day we will wonder where our faith has gone.

Jesus said that His words were spirit and they were life. The writer of Hebrews says that God sustains all things by the power of His Word. And again, Solomon declares that; “Like cold water to a weary soul, is good news from a distant land.”

Well, I’ve got some good news for us all and it has come straight from Heaven itself. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne.” These are living words!

Have a great week!
Pastor Jim