Winter Pictures

Nothing theologically exciting here...just winter pictures.

Advent Thoughts

Sunday mornings, I am preaching from Isaiah 9:1-7, focusing on verse six which says, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. These four prophetic titles given to Jesus have amazing ramifications for us in our walk with God - some are obvious, others require a little digging...
Jesus is the Wonderful One who gives us counsel...through His Word, via the Holy Spirit, through our personal prayer lives, through His Church and even through our circumstances.
He is the Mighty God. Hebrews tells us that, "The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." As our Everlasting and Omniscient Father, He knows exactly what we need exactly when we need it.
He is the Everlasting, Eternal Father. As our Eternal Father, His nature and character do not change - and neither does His love for each of us.
I love what The Message Bible says in Romans 10:13: “Everyone who calls, ’Help, God!’ gets help.” The simplicity of that statement is very refreshing and comforting to me. I hope, this Christmas, each of you learns to lean on Jesus as your Wonderful Counselor, your Mighty God, your everlasting Father and your Prince of Peace. I haven't preached my sermon Jesus as our Prince of Peace yet, so I will have to save that for later...
Thanks for reading!

Mark

Thoughts From My Quiet Time

I want to share with you my random thoughts from my quiet time today – maybe it will be an encouragement for you as you journey through your day today. Many of you know that I use the One Year Bible for my quiet times, and I highly recommend it. You can buy a print version, which I have, or you can access it daily online at: www.oneyearbibleonline.com, pick your favorite version and the date, and off you go. This is the method that I use the most. Each day you read about two chapters from the Old Testament, two from the New Testament, a Psalm and one passage from Proverbs.

Today’s readings were from Lamentations 1 and 2. Honestly, over the course of my walk with God, I haven’t spent much time in Lamentations. Today, the passages from Lamentations were a reminder to me of God’s love for His people, and God’s hatred for sin and disobedience. The laments of chapters 1 and 2 are focused on the nation of Israel – but today as I read them, I felt as though these words could easily be translated and used in our country today. I often find myself grumbling – especially lately - about the state of our nation (usually from a moral, political or economic standpoint) – but then at the end of my quiet time today, I read these words from Psalm 101:

1 “I will sing of your love and justice;
to you, O LORD, I will sing praise.

2 I will be careful to lead a blameless life—
when will you come to me?
I will walk in my house
with blameless heart.”

I was reminded, as I read that Psalm, that if I expect anything to change in my country on a “national” level, it starts with ME walking in MY house, with a blameless heart, and being careful to lead a blameless life. I also read from Philemon this morning, where Paul pleads, “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. 7Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.” This passage reminded me that if I expect any kind of real “change” to take place in my life, in the lives of people I love, or in the country in which I live, I need to be willing to point people to the ONLY ONE who can transform the heart of a man, and that’s Jesus Christ!

The passage from Proverbs today said, “Without wood a fire goes out;
without gossip a quarrel dies down.”

I think that today, instead of joining in all the “political” conversations that seem to be so popular among people wherever I go – rather than debate or defend my political convictions, which have NO ETERNAL VALUE – I will remind people of my LASTING CONVICTIONS in my relationship with my Redeemer, Jesus Christ!

Afterall...

“This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through
my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
and I can't feel at home in this world anymore”

Wow, I should have saved this stuff for a sermon...

Hope you all have a great day.