I’m sure that I’ve told you all about the creek that runs through our yard. When Robin and I first moved to Tyndal in 1979, we really thought having a creek on our property was cool. One of my first projects was to build a bridge. It’s a man thing! Over the years this little creek has proven to be more of a headache than anything else. It has constantly eaten away at its banks and at times, became a devastating flood. One time it even uprooted a twenty-five foot apple tree and sent it down to the Muskingum River before our very eyes. It has also continually brought the trash from up stream and deposited it in my own yard. But what bothers me the most about this little waterway of trouble is that it doesn’t flow all the time. Sometimes it has water and sometimes it doesn’t.

It reminds me of the river Job described, as he likened his friends to it; “A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams that overflow when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, but that cease to flow in the dry season and in the heat vanish from their channels.” Job 6:14-17

The Lord used this Scripture and one I found in the book of Jeremiah to correct my thinking about a certain situation I was going through. You see, I had felt used and abused. I was going through a spiritual desert and I was really complaining to God about the lack of ministry that I thought He called me to. I had just left my first pastorate after two years and I wasn’t getting any calls for revivals. I might also add, it was the church’s decision that I leave, as they unanimously voted us out.

So, as you can see, I wasn’t feeling real good about myself, or about my spiritual walk with God. While I was praying about the situation one day God led me to Jeremiah 15. I felt encouraged as I was turning the pages, thinking, “Yea God, My life has been just as this prophet’s. Here I am proclaiming Thy Word boldly and no one listens, no one understands, no one cares about me.” Man I was pouring on the crocodile tears. I was just sure that God was going to bless me with some comfort and assurance that He saw my plight and He fully understood. All I wanted was a little stroking of the back, a little pat on the head, just a little, “Yes Jim, you are right and they are wrong, and I’m going to get them for giving you a hard time. I’ll have them acknowledge that My favor rests on you.”

So here it is basically; I was complaining to God because things weren’t happening and asking Him if He was going to be this deceptive brook, this spring that fails? Jer.15:18 This is when God led me to Job and pretty much told me that it was not He that was the intermittent stream but me and if I wanted to be used by Him that I needed to prove faithful with the gospel that He entrusted to me. 1Cor.4:2 & 1Pe.4:10,11 And then He reminded me that He had definitely taken me into His confidence –Proverbs 3:32

Then He took me back to Jeremiah 15 and laid it all on the line: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless words, you will be my spokesman.” Jer.15:19 This all took place back in 1992 and since then, I have tried my best to let God speak through me rather than me trying to speak for God – there’s a difference you know. When we Christians try to speak for God we can easily fall into the devil’s snares. But if we let God speak through us, we become a river, whose streams make glad the city of our God.

Have a God blessed week!
Pastor Jim

“The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.’” Jer.2:1,2

I have always found it pleasant and somewhat refreshing that the Lord has chosen not to remember the sins of my past and has chosen to remember the love and devotion that I had shown to Him in the beginnings of my walk with Him.

I remember too. I remember the hours upon hours that I would sit with my Bible and kneel in prayer and worship. I would find myself in His Presence and longing more and more for Him to reveal more of Himself to me. It was kind of funny, the closer I drew near, the more I wanted to draw nearer. But I never realized that the closer to God one gets, the bigger the demand is placed on the soul.

His all-consuming fire would burn off delights and desires that I was accustomed to all of my life. Some of these were wrong and needed to be removed from the new heart that He had given me, but some were legitimate and created for man to enjoy while he toiled and labored for the few days of life that God has given him.

Yet, I somehow knew that when I would sacrifice these pleasures, God would be quick to fill in that “empty” spot in my heart that those desires left behind. I filled those spots with worship and prayer and God inhabited them both, thus He filled my heart more and more.

I knew also that I had to hide His Word in my heart as well, for David said, “Lord, I will hide your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you.” Jesus told us all that if we loved Him, He and the Father would come and live with us and in us. I have found this Scripture to be true to the uttermost and I continually thank my God for the grace that He has apportioned to me through His precious Son, Jesus Christ.

So, my Christian walk began to become a bigger paradox than ever; on one side I felt so blessed and loved and on the other side, I felt such a need to give myself to His service and ministry of His Church. The problem I had was balancing the emotions that these things afforded. I didn’t handle the problem very well. There were times when I would be truly blessed in my private worship and get nothing out of corporate worship. There were times that I would spend many days in ministry and not enough time in receiving my own daily bread.

I would get weary and in my weariness I would become impatient if the Lord tarried. One of the things about weariness –we often times bring it on ourselves and then we secretly get mad at God for not blessing us as we have labored for Him. I know, I know, I sound like a big baby. But this went on for a couple of years and I’m telling you, there is nothing colder and lonelier than wanting to be in His Presence and He refusing even just a touch. (He does it for our own good.)

If you have found yourself in this sort of lukewarm complacency and it has been years since you have literally fallen on your knees in worship, if the Presence hasn’t brought you to that point of spiritual ecstasy, then I suggest that you return to God in the spirit of repentance and remember your First Love. Since God remembered our first love, we can do the same and remember it as well.

I have heard a number of people longing for the days of their spiritual birth when they were so in love with God and He with them. They tend to think that they have been too cold for too long and Christ will not accept them as before. That’s a lie of the devil. “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more shall we be saved through his life.”

Have a God blessed week!
Pastor Jim

When I think of the array of emotions that are brought on by the trials of life, joy isn’t one of them! It seems so absurd to be happy or joyful during the grievances of tribulation. Yet, rejoicing and exceeding gladness is what our Lord wants us to express when we are suffering such things as persecutions, false testimonies and the like.

Paul said that we rejoice in sufferings because we know that trials produce perseverance; perseverance brings on character; and character produces hope. Hope does not disappoint. James tells us that trials offer the opportunity for us to grow into maturity and become complete, lacking no good thing.

Now, I truly believe that none of these men, including our Lord Himself are suggesting that we hold a careless, giddy attitude in the midst of trials. Trials are problems; problems need fixed; and there is no place for fickleness in the thick of battle. God brings trials into our lives so that we may learn how to overcome them. Getting the victory over a certain battle, or acing a test can prove very fulfilling.

Even if we lose a battle we should be positive that we would not lose the war. Woodrow Wilson once said, “I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose.” Elihu warned Job, “Beware of turning to evil, which you seem to prefer to affliction.” Job36:21

If we do what we have to (even if it means sinning) to get out of our trials, then we’ve missed the opportunity that God provided for our growth and lost sight of the big picture all together. Is it really advantageous to compromise our faith so that we will not suffer as much? I don’t think so.

When a man cheats on his taxes so that he can have a few more dollars to spend at the moment, he really cheats himself in the long run. Jesus told us that we would have tribulations in this life, but be of good cheer, He has overcome this life.

I know of couples who consider living together wrong, yet, they still do it because it is better for them financially. Really? It will cost them big in the end. There was a Christian man who was hired by an accounting firm. The man’s employer came to him one day after hiring him and asked if he would change some numbers for him on a certain account of a friend. The Christian man went home that night very troubled. He knew that changing the numbers was wrong and against the law, but if he didn’t change the numbers, it would mean his job because the account in consideration was that of a friend of the employer. The next day he walked into his boss’s office and told him that he could not change the numbers as that would be wrong and he feared God, and wanted to do the right thing. The employer looked up from his work and his face brightened. A smile came upon his face and he told the new employee that not only was he going to keep his job, but that he would also receive a raise for his honesty and integrity. He was just the kind of employee that this boss wanted.

No matter the trial, God is more interested in our character rather than our situation. As Christians we have the advantage of knowing that our cause will win in the end. Why? Because if God be for us, who then can be against us? Beloved, joy is a gift God gives to His children who have their sights on the big picture rather than the moment. The famous quarterback for the New York Jets Joe Namath, was once interviewed after a rather physical game. Through all the bumps and bruises, cuts and scrapes, the smiling superstar said, “Nothing hurts when you win.”

And finally, Jesus has promised us, “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Have a God blessed week!
Pastor Jim