Sunday, April 16, 2006

Resurrection Sunday

Resurrection Sunday

It’s Easter or Resurrection Sunday and what a joy it is to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, although we can really celebrate this each day because he rose over two thousand years ago and will live forever.  I had spent this past week in Kerrville for a statewide training but with God’s help, I was able to get some spiritual refreshment through a couple of sermons that I had previously downloaded onto my personal laptop as wel as the spirit that I felt in the early morning hours of prayer before the events of the day started.  

But now that is past and we move on to another week, but with it the realization that we serve a living God who promises eternal life for all those who trust Him as Savior and follow Him.  John 10:27-28 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”  We first must trust in Him as our Savior and Lord then follow Him which means do what He says.  We know what He is telling us by reading and living His Word, or the Bible.  That is His Word and the Word we will be judged by in heaven for  David said in Psalm 94:12, “Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law.”  The law that David had was only the first five books of the Bible known as the Pentateuch but less someone say that is only law, we read in the New Testament in Romans 2:16, “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”  The gospel is of course the gospel given to Paul written in the New Testament.  

When we realize that we have a book such as the Bible that will allow us to hear from God himself and that doesn’t change, we know that we have a God and therefore a promise that cannot change for Malachi 3:6  says, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”  We continue to receive God’s mercy.  If you do not know the risen Savior and your life is only full of empty dreams, hopelessness, and depression, trust in the living Savior, Jesus Christ and be made brand new.  

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:16-17

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Changing Times

Once again we have changed our time. We have “sprung forward” our clocks to the daylight savings time so we can have an hour more sunlight at night. In the fall, we’ll turn the clocks back and “fall back” an hour, re-capturing the hour we lost this spring. This isn’t new. We’ve done it for years. I remember when it first started. I was a boy in Iowa and only certain towns would have it. One town, named Washington, would have it but the rest of us wouldn’t so when I visited my grandma who lived near Washington and went their somewhat often, it always seemed strange to have to figure everything an hour ahead. You may not be aware of this, but there is one place that the time splits within the half hour. Strange, but true and who knows why, or at least I don’t.

Time is important to us, sometimes too important. We have time pieces everywhere. They’re on our microwaves, stoves, cell phones, radios, computers, cars, and anything else that man can figure out a way to attach a clock. And of course, we MUST have our watch and don’t forget the clocks on the wall and the big one over the fireplace. All these timepieces are not an accident. We demand it. We have to get it down by the hour. Even on our days off, we have to know what time it is. Why, who knows but we’ve got to know.

Time to God is not the same as for us. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” 2 Peter 3:8 What may seem like an “eternity” to us, is no very little time to God. Even in prophesy, we can find a gap of thousands of years between phrases. “6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: {several thousand years} and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

But, one day, time will be no more. “But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.” Zechariah 14:7 In eternity, time will have no meaning. The question is, where will you spend it?