New Beginnings

 New Beginnings 

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creation;

the old has gone,

the new has come!”

(2 Corinthians 5:17) 

            Today is the first day of the rest of your life; believe it. Every day is a new day, a chance to start over. Yesterday is past, tomorrow the future and today is a gift from God. It is up to us how we are going to use it. We can choose to carry around our old baggage or harvest new joys. It is our choice. 

            Using a golf analogy, life is match play, hole by hole versus day by day. A bad golf hole in match play does not cost you the match, it counts as one of eighteen. In life, a bad day is painful and certainly not wanted and may contribute to a bad week. However, it can be a bottom, and life can be all uphill from there. We can turn bad into good.           

            If you are reading this today you are on the right track, giving yourself the opportunity for a better day. Meditation and prayer will jump-start your day and open the window to the light of our faith. 

Thought for Today: Today let us start a new beginning. 

Prayer for Today: Heavenly Father we give you thanks for our many blessings; especially for a new day. We pray that we capture the joys of life that you lead us to and that we may help someone else also find them.

Amen

 

 

Promises

Last week we read the first verse of Natalie Sleeth’s Hymn of Promise. The second verse gives us a path from dark times to light. The second verse seems appropriate in today's times. 

00509 Promise 

"There is a song in every silence,
seeking word and melody;
there's a dawn in every darkness,
bringing hope to you and me;
From the past will come the future;
what it holds a mystery,
unrevealed until its season.
something God alone can see."
(Hymn Of Promise Verse 2
Words and music, Natalie Sleeth 1986) 

        A recently retired pastor listed this as one of his favorite hymns. It is easy to see why. We put our lives in God's hands, he knows and loves us, and we know that through our faith we have a future. This verse talks about times when life is too quiet- when we need to talk. It mentions the dark times and assures that there will be light and better times; also, the past, which we are not always proud of, will become a bright future through Him. It points out that we do not know or predict what He has in store for us.

 

A case in point is a good friend called me in prayer. He has worked for a company for 18 years and was undergoing the job stress that is typical in today's world. We met this week and he was now OK. Management, led by a Christian friend, solved his problems. They met with him to discuss his future with them, told him that they valued him as an employee and wanted to be sure he was comfortable. His stress was because he misread the situation.

 

He commented that in 18 years, it was the first time that anyone in management told him he was wanted and that they wanted him to be happy. What a concept for a company today. Ask yourself if God was at work here.

 

 Thought for Today: Some days are brighter than others. The symbol of a gray or bright day is an easy one to relate to. Our lives are like that. Through our faith, we understand that there will be brighter days following the dark ones. This week let us focus on the bright times.

 

Prayer for Today: Heavenly Father, throughout the world there are many dark areas. The Middle East is in turmoil over social and religious differences. There is COVID, hate, and poverty. There are century-old tribal wars on the European peninsula. Today, we pray for the understanding that you are with us through dark

 times and that we can appreciate the light at the end of the tunnel.
Amen

 

Psalm 106:12

Then they believed his promises and sang his praise. (Reference)

 

00508 Spring

 

"In the bulb, there is a flower,
in the seed an apple tree;
in cocoons a hidden promise:
butterflies will soon be free!

In the cold and snow of Winter
there's a Spring that waits to be,
unrevealed until it's season,
something God alone can see."
(Hymn of Promise, Verse 1, Natalie Sleeth, 1986)

        This is s glorious time of the year. The northern hemisphere goes into the transition to Summer. It is a time when the resolutions from the new year are long since successful or forgotten. A time of vacation planning, garden planting, and the anticipation of the beauty of the warm season. A time of hope led by the visible evidence of God's presence around us.

 

This is a time for reflection and review of our dark side. A review of the negative forces in our lives. This is Spring and we need to recover the "...hidden promise..." in our personal lives "... that God alone can see." Through our faith and belief, our Lord will share with us the pleasures of life.

Thought for Today: It is spring, take special notice of its wonders. Smell the flowers and enjoy the showers. Let us share these positive feelings with others and encourage positive feelings around us.

Prayer for Today: Heavenly Father we pray for an end to senseless killing and the guidance to understand this violent world that surrounds us. There seems to be a dominant hate factor that is not created by Godly forces. There needs to be more prayer and less negative logic.  We pray that the world’s religions may see You as one God. We pray that somehow through your divine guidance, killing, hate, and violence may come to an end.

 

 

Pride and Humility

Pride and Humility 

“Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud,

but humility comes before honor.”

(Proverbs 18:12) 

            My mom used to use some interesting terms and expressions when describing humanity. One of her favorites was “foolhardy” when someone did something out of line. Another was that “It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” Somehow, when we are proud in the context of today’s text, we are not paying attention. When we kid ourselves with false pride, it helps us grow to have an appreciation for the realities of life. 

            We are often overconfident, especially when we are young. Somehow, that is God’s way of teaching us. We constantly have to monitor our pride and confidence. The elders of society have knowledge and experience but are not always correct. Technology and society are changing faster than fifty years ago. Therefore many of the rules of life have changed. 

In our spiritual lives, the rules have not and will not change. We need to take inventory of our pride and be real. The ethics, love, and traditions taught to us by Christ will endure regardless of technology changes and cash flows. We need to hold up our values to serve the Lord in an ever-changing world. 

Thought for Today: Every day is the first day of the rest of our lives. The mistakes and experiences of our past are nothing more than learning experiences and enable us to move forward with confidence. Today, let us focus on being humble and dealing with the realities of our worlds. 

Prayer for Today: Heavenly Father, today we give thanks for the lessons we have learned and the great loves that we have. Through all that Jesus taught us and what we learned from the past, thank you for putting it before us.

Amen

 

Positive Strongholds

Strongholds in Our Lives

 

“For though we live in the world,

we do not wage war as the world does.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds”

(2 Corinthians 10 vs. 3 & 4) 

            Life contains issues that dominate our thoughts and distract us from our spirituality. They may be negative or even exciting and positive issues. On the surface, they may be very good for us. Distractions that have a stronghold on us, “strongholds,” block us from being Godly or spiritual.           

In our case, the Pickering family had some very successful years and a good life. We owned and ran three businesses, traveled, and raised four children. Those were also triathlon years and June and I kept very fit. (I just looked at some old photos and wondered how we ever looked like that.) There were a few people, including my pastor, who talked with me about possibly being OCD. That could never have been true, making money, having fun, great family trips, etc. and we did go to church. That is the American way. We were victims of a positive stronghold.           

There were some negatives. In the early ’80s, there was a recession that caused business stress that dominated our thoughts, some legal issues that dominated thoughts for a year, and every day management of it all.  Another time when there were two kids in college and our first business had issues that caused us to hedge our bets and start a second business.           

Positive and negative issues in our lives can be overwhelming. When these strongholds take over, spiritual focus will level the field. In our case we knew that we needed help and emotional support. So we prayed a lot and meditated about the Lord’s role in our lives. We made it with the help of spiritual growth and so can you. 

Thought for Today: Today let’s recognize our strongholds and pray for release. We can take a break from them.

Prayer for Today: Dear Lord and father, today is the day you made for us to enjoy. We are often distracted by life and ask your support so that our concentration on the spirit stays at the forefront. Today we pray that we will contribute to doing your will here on earth.

Amen

 

Spring, Peace on Earth!

Spring 

"Crown Him the Lord of peace,
Whose power a scepter sways
From pole to pole, that wars may cease,
And all be prayer and praise"

Crown Him, Methodist Hymnal; words by Mathew Bridges 1851

 

            Spring is a wonderful time of the year. Short winter days are replaced with warmer, longer evenings. Spring bulbs emerge from the ground with green sprouts, color returns to the woods, parks, and yards. It is a time when the wonders of God bring peaceful thoughts to us all.

       

We also live in a world surrounded by protests, shootings and fear. Terrorism, anger, illness, and other crises fill our world alongside the wonders of spring.  Where is our "peace on earth"? Spring shows us how close it is and that God is trying to bring it to us. What is our best way to participate in having a peaceful world?

 

The message in another hymn,"...let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me." gives us a hint. If each of us does our part, we can influence the world.

 

John F. Kennedy put it like this.  "One person can make a difference and every person must try.”

Thought for Today: We encounter negativity, anger, frustrations in the workplace, and frustration in our lives. We can choose to be anxious or at peace. This week let’s demonstrate Christian love and our peaceful side. Let peace begin with each of us.

Prayer for Today: Heavenly Father, we see violence negativity around the world and seem to have very little control over it all. We pray that we may lead by the example of Christ, that our living example may contribute to a better world. 

 

Personal Peace

Personal Prayer 

“Let us, therefore, make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification.”

(Romans 14:19) 

         As we watch the news, read our newspapers and study life around us, we see a lot of stress and confusion. The media presents us with more negatives than positives. We might wonder how to overcome these challenges and bring peace to the world.        

Consider what our contribution to peace will be. We cannot go out tomorrow and solve the world’s problems and create “World Peace”. However, each of us can start every day to be at peace and stay that way. Stay within ourselves through prayer to maintain our internal peace. 

Our contribution to the world can and will start within us. We know that the Lord is with us, we need to let Him in and others see the results. As Paul stated to the Romans, “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.  ² Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” (Romans 15:1 & 2). 

Thought for Today: There is an old expression that suggests aggressive reactions: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. That is always an option. Today for us let’s think about this: When our going gets tough, let’s start to pray and be at peace”. Demonstrate a better way! 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father today we pray for gentile solutions to our problems. We pay that when things get tough we may peacefully resolve the issues the way Jesus did.

Amen