June 30: A good place to start at the end of the first half of the year

2 Kings 17:1-18:12

Acts 20:1-38

Psalm 148:1-14

Proverbs 18:6-7

I don't know how the last couple of weeks in your life has been, but for quite a few people I know, things have been extremely challenging - from problems at work (or the lack thereof), to problems with kids, to problems with health, to just plain exhaustion...I have been coming into contact with a lot of people whom God appears to have called to continue to live their lives, albeit with some additional burden.  Some have borne their burdens extremely well - I admit I have struggled quite a bit the last few weeks.  What to do?

What I'd like to be able to do is emulate Paul.  He went where God sent him, and everywhere it seems he went, he had the added burden of people plotting against him simply for doing God's will and preaching His word.  And despite his crazy travel schedule, he did God's work extremely diligently...we read how, because he was scheduled to leave the next day, he stayed up talking, preaching till midnight, revived someone who had fallen to his death, then kept on talking and preaching till the sun came up.  Even more so, it seems he was doing all of this with a mind to obeying God's directions and making it to Jerusalem, even if he knew he wasn't going to leave alive.  Talk about an additional burden!  How did he do it?

1.  It seems he thought nothing of himself, and everything of God.  In Acts 20:19 he says "I served the Lord with great humility..."  And in verse 24 we read that he "considers [his] life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me..."

2.  He was connected to God.  In verse 22 we know he was "compelled by the Spirit" - which would make sense, because when one is certain of what God asks, it becomes easier to go and do.  

The last couple of Sundays Pastors Scott and Kenny have talked about maintaining and strengthening our connection with God.  Part of that - and it was a really good suggestion - was taking five minutes a day to think of each and every thing we can be thankful to God for.  For someone that has been feeling down the last few weeks, that seems like a really good place to start.

June 29

Psalm 147:3  He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Someone put this verse on my door last week so it has special meaning to me. I am very sensitive to broken hearts these days. But the Psalmist is obviously referring to the emotional or spirit component of our hearts. That is the part where the true you and me actually lives. It is the very center of our being and this part of us can be broken. I actually believe that brokenness of our emotional hearts causes greater pain than a physical break.

The three most frequent causes of broken heartedness in my life include:

1. When I'm disconnection from the people closest to me. When the arrows of hurtful words or actions hit my heart, it causes brokenness.  

2. When I become discouraged or disillusioned it breaks my heart.

3. When I fail to live up the standard God has set for my life, I feel broken.  

So what should we do when we find ourselves with a bad case of brokenheartedness? As quickly as possible get ourselves to the best heart doctor in town. There is not a wiser heart doctor than Jesus. His résumé is found in verses 4-6. He has great knowledge. He is the one who created the stars. Twinkie, Flash, Ray, Sunshine, Brightness, Splash are just a few of the names God might have given the stars. The amount of stars in the universe exceeds the number of grains of sand on all the beaches, on all the seashores, on the entire planet. It is hard for me to grasp the truth that God knows each one by name. That is the doctor I want to operate on my heart.

From stars to sighs He is familiar. From worlds to wounds, He can fix them all. So if you have a broken heart and you have dialed the heavenly doctor with a 9-1-1 call, you are in the right place.

--

"Multiplying leaders to change the world"

Saturday BlogPost (6/28/14)

Saturday, June 28, 2014 [by Keesha Sullivan]

"In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned seventeen years. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord by following the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, and he did not turn away from them. 3 So the Lord's anger burned against Israel, and for a long time he kept them under the power of Hazael king of Aram and Ben-Hadad his son. (2 Kings 13:1-4)

4 Then Jehoahaz sought the Lord's favor, and the Lord listened to him..."

 

Although Jehoahaz King of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, God still listened to him when he sought favor. Many of my friends believe in God, but they are not ready to come to church or begin a relationship with Him. They feel as though God will not forgive them for their sins, and that the things that they did in their past were just too evil. Some of them even get emotional as they talk about their past.

 

It is my desire for them to know the true characteristics of God. In Nehemiah 9:31 it talks about God's wonderful attributes. It says, "But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and mercifulGod." One of the most amazing things that God does for His people is forgive them. There is no sin to big for God to forgive. If we "seek the Lord[our] God, [we] will find him if [we] seek him with all [our] heart and with all [our] soul."

 

Jehoahaz had sinned greatly against God. The Lords anger burned against him as well as the people of Israel, yet when Jehoahaz turned to God, he heard his cries. In fact, God sent His son in order to make sure that we know about the forgiveness that He so lovingly offers. Jesus says in Matthew 26: 28 "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

 

If we seek the Lord our God the way that Jehoahaz sought the Lord, God will listen to us too. The same grace that was provided for Jehoahaz can be provided for us as well.

 

Lord, God, thank You so much for your forgiveness and mercy. You are a gracious, holy God. We thank you that no matter how evil our sins are that we commit that you still forgive us. Thank You for allowing us to turn our faces to You and to seek you. Please help us to share Your power to forgive with others as well as to "be merciful, just as [You are] merciful" (Luke 6:36).

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Kenny Sullivan

soli Deo gloria

June 27th

(Today's post is written by Katia Piorkowski:)

Friday, June 27th, 2014

2 Kings 10:32 - 12:21
Acts 18:1-22
Psalms 145:1-21
Proverbs 17:26

God desires courageous men and women to proclaim his truth.

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, "Don't be afraid! Speak out! Don't be silent! For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me." So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God.

From the moment I re-dedicated my life to following and serving Christ, I began to have many internal conflicts. I was having a difficult time finding a church I felt I belonged in, I wanted to move to another town, and I wanted to find another job. All of these wants came down to one thing; I did not think I would be able to serve the Lord how I was and where I was. It was a very frustrating time for me and I had a lot to learn. I did the only thing I knew to do; I prayed.

Soon after, I was given a message that said, "Bloom where you are planted." I don't know if this is biblical, but this message was for me and I knew it came from God. I started changing my perspective a bit and everything started falling in to place. First I ran into Chuck and shared my spiritual crisis. He invited me to come to Grace and I did. What a wonderful blessing that was. Not only did I feel I belonged, but I was given the opportunity to help with GYRO. That was yet another blessing! I felt I was reaching a very important audience and doing God's work.

The next task would prove a little more challenging. How could I bring God to work? I so desperately wanted to shout about him to everyone I came across. You see, I work at a doctor's office and my boss is Jewish. I feared talking about God would be inappropriate and I certainly did not want to offend anyone, particularly my boss. I decided that I was going to talk about God anyway. What a leap of faith that was!

I started by thanking God out loud for good things that were happening. When a patient opened up to me about a difficulty they were experiencing, I would share about what God was doing in my life. Most recently, I was taking care of a patient who had been experiencing a lot of pain. While giving him therapy, I asked him about his pain levels. His response was that it was not bad at that time, but the night before it was a 26 on the scale of 1-10. I asked him what he did to help the pain to go away. His response was, "I prayed."

I talk to my boss about Jesus all the time now, and I often hear him repeating things I have shared to patients. What I have been finding is that when you open up about your beliefs, others will be more comfortable speaking with you about theirs. It is a great way to help strengthen each other's faith.

I hope this inspires you to speak out. Don't be afraid.

Thursday, June 26

THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2014

2 Kings 9:14–10:31

Acts 17:1–34

Psalm 144:1–15

Proverbs 17:27,28

 

 

“Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said:  ‘People of Athens!  I see that in every way you are very religious.  For, as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:  to an unknown god.  Now, what you worship as something unknown, I am going to proclaim to you.

 

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.  From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.  ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’  As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

 

“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made by human design and skill.  In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.  For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.  He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22–31)

 

 

Paul’s sermon pointedly addresses the prevailing philosophies and ethos of first-century Athens.  As the center of Greek culture, Athens gathered together the leading thinkers of Epicureanism and Stoicism, and Paul received the opportunity to counter these camps – and the “religious” background of the idol-strewn city – in his visit to the Areopagus.

 

It appears that philosophy peppered public conversations:  “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.” (21)  Paul clearly did his homework in order to speak into this cultural mien.

 

Briefly, it is helpful to review the philosophical underpinnings of Epicureanism and Stoicism.  Epicurean philosophy held that happiness, yet not marked by only momentary pleasure of gratification, represented the supreme good in life, but this ethic had devolved into a more sensual approach by the first century.  Stoicism taught that people may be self-sufficient and independent and, while living in accord with nature, should suppress their desires.  Both philosophies had devolved into systems of pride, and it appears that Athens featured competitions among philosophers in the public square.

 

In addition, Paul mentions the “very religious” Athenians, who had built altar even to an “unknown god.”  Greek mythology involved an elaborate understanding of natural and spiritual phenomena, but, in practice, it boiled down to idolatry.  Paul therefore sought to introduce the Athenians to the sovereign and personal Lord of the universe.

 

This one God “made the world” and did not require human craftsmanship to come into being.  His power had determined the watercourse of human history and “determined the times” and “places where they should live.”  The world had a definite telos (end), and history is not merely the result of Chance, as the Epicureans held.  Psalm 33:10 declares: “The LORD foils the plans of the nations;/ he thwarts the purposes of the peoples./ But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever,/ the purposes of his heart through all generations.”

 

Paul then challenges his hearers to consider the personal call of God in their lives:  “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. “ (27)  Not only does God have sovereignty over history, His imminent presence draws men to Himself on an individual basis.

 

He concludes the sermon with a call to repentance, in light of the Resurrection.  God had previously overlooked the “ignorance” human idolatry but now had sent His Son to bring redemption.  In Romans 1:20, Paul explains that, “since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”  His argument continues that, “although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21)  This futility of thought devolved in idolatry, sexual immorality, and “every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity.” (Romans 1:29)

 

A. W. Tozer wrote that “what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”  Paul invited his hearers to begin that searching after God’s heart.  The crowd reacted in three ways:  1) distaste and rejection; 2) openness but procrastination; and 3) acceptance and commitment.  How will you respond to God’s call on your life?

 

 

Lord God, thank You for setting the course of human history and allowing us to reach out to You.  Call our hearts into a deeper communion with You and grant us the full experience of Your Presence.  May we understand the shortcomings of the world’s philosophies and Your greatness.  We commit our lives to following You and serving Your people.  In Jesus’s Name, amen.

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June 23: Praying for elephants...repeatedly

2 Kings 4:18-5:27

Acts 15:1-35

Psalm 141:1-10

Proverbs 17:23

This past week it seems so much has happened in our church that has needed prayer to God, for help, for healing and other requests.  Trouble, illness and difficulty seem to have been such a recurring theme.  When faced with such unrelenting need, I used to think I asked too much of God, that it wasn't my place to ask, that instead I should await what He wants to give me.  And then yesterday we heard our pastor's wife talk about being confident enough in our relationship with God to "pray for elephants", citing the story of a child who wanted an elephant for a birthday present; and today, we read about all these people who seem to bombard God, through Elisha, with various requests - for food, for healing, even for resurrection - a prayer for an elephant, if I ever saw one.  And God, through Elisha, answers every single one of those prayers.  Then we read in today's psalm "I call to you Lord, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to you."  And I went back to the massive Father's Day Card my daughter gave me, covered with verses reminding me we can turn to God in times of trouble.  And then I remember, I realize all over again - we can always, should always call on God; we can always, should always pray for elephants.

He wouldn't have it any other way.

June 22

Psalm 140

The past week might have been the most life altering week of our lives. Kathie and I have experienced the high point of celebrating my 60^th birthday with dear friends to the low of having a heart attack on Tuesday. We are still trying to process everything that occurred and even today it is surreal to us. But we have been asking God to teach us each step of the journey. Here are a few lessons we have learned.

1. Give glory to God for his mercy and grace. We can come up with a 100 different scenarios where the ending to the story is drastically different. All we can say is that God is good, and He is good all the time.

2. God's presence makes a huge difference when we go through the storms of life. We don't get to select the storm but we do get to select our guide through the storm. God's presence at each step of this journey has brought us peace, comfort and even joy.

3. Every day is precious. There are no guarantees for tomorrow. So live life intentionally today. When I was on the operating table I didn't think about  my house, my car, my bank account, my upcoming Triathlon; what I thought about was Jesus, my wife, my family and my incredible friends. Those are the things that really count.

4. Simple acts of kindness make a huge difference. (These two stories illustrate the first point of Kenny's sermon today about doing the little things.  They had already been written before hearing the sermon.)

Kathie was in the hallway at the hospital composing herself after getting choked up during a phone call.  A staff physical therapist who was walking by stopped and hugged her and talked with her for several minutes to make sure she was okay. 

When I was at the Tully Immediate Care Center I was very close to losing consciousness. By that time I knew I was having a heart attack and I was in grave danger. The pain of the attack was a "9" on the 1-10 scale, I selected 9 because I didn't want to run out of options for numbers. But in the process of being treated, a single little tear formed at the side of my right eye. As I was being wheeled out of the room on the stretcher, a kind doctor took her hospital gown and dabbed that tear.

These were such simple acts yet they touched us deeply.

The Psalmist says that righteous people praise God and live their lives with the reality of his presence. May our experience encourage you to do the same.

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"Multiplying leaders to change the world"