God Has a Plan
At the beginning of my senior year in high school, Mr. Edmonds, our guidance counselor, visited each home room class to talk about our career plans following graduation. He emphasized the importance of choosing the right career path by saying, “You better know what you want to do when you graduate because you’re going to be doing it the rest of your life.” No pressure, right?
Some students knew what path their life would take–college, the military, or a job. I had absolutely no idea, but expected I’d go to college for something. But what? The pressure I put on myself to choose a career path for the rest of my life was unbearable.
In case you are wondering, I entered college majoring in musical theater and graduated with a dual bachelor’s degree in Elementary/Early Childhood Education. Later, I received two master’s degrees in human resources management and divinity. I’m sorry Mr. Edmonds, but the path to a lifetime career is not a straight line!
Not knowing the plan that God has on your life can be maddening, but my question to you is this: Are you listening for God to speak? Have you spent time in prayer and meditation with God asking the big questions and waiting for God to answer? Communication, my friends, is a two-way street!
As I continue to grow in faith, I find comfort in the knowledge that God knows the plans he has for my life. What a relief! “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” – Jeremiah 29:11-14
God is Good…Praise Him
Words can be so powerful! Take time this week to choose a word to live by, like faith, hope, love, or any word that motivates you. Use that word to transform your thought patterns into whatever might be happening in your world. I have chosen hope, as I know that God’s love will hopefully strengthen my anchored faith no matter what happens. When I experience aches and pains, I hope for good health, not only for myself, but for everyone who is suffering with health issues. When I turn on the...
The Psalms, Before and After the Resurrection
As I read this coming Sunday’s four lectionary readings, The Revelation of John 7:9-17 spoke the loudest to me: In John’s vision, upon Jesus’s victory over evil in the very end times, a crowd of people from all nations stood before the throne of God and before the Lamb holding palm branches and saying, “Salvation comes from our God upon the throne, and from the Lamb.” Having celebrated Palm Sunday on 10 April 2022, with the waving of palm branches of our own congregation, led by our children...
Silver Linings
Some days are more challenging than others. Some days your faith may wane. Some days you may find it hard to pray. Some days you may not see the clouds’ silver linings. Psalms 118: 24-29 reminds us: This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we beseech you, O LORD! O LORD, we beseech you, give us success! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD. We bless you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, and he has given us light. Bind the...
Psalm 91:2
Psalm 91:2 A refuge is a place safely out of harm’s way. A fortress is a fortified building that is virtually impenetrable by conventional means. Martin Luther wrote a wonderful hymn that says, “A mighty fortress is our God; a bulwark never failing. Our helper He amidst the flood; of mortal ills prevailing.” What a statement about the magnificent power and protection of God. I bet you were like me and even reading the above statement, in my head I sang it. What a wonderful gift from God....
Be the Sermon
Last month our guest Pastor the Rev. J. David Worthen referenced the following poem by Edgar Guest, called Sermons We See. After the service I immediately went home and looked up the rest of the poem. I am wired like this poem. Don’t just talk to me, teach me, show me, help me understand. As I thought about how this relates to church and my relationship with Jesus, I had to smile. I thought of all the wonderful Saints that have been at the First Presbyterian Church. All the wonderful gifts...
Loaves and Fishes
Jesus and his disciples left for a remote location and the crowds followed. Jesus taught them, and at the end of the day, they were hungry. It was late, they were in a remote location, with a crowd of hungry people. The disciples informed Jesus of the situation and made a helpful suggestion: send the people away so they can go into surrounding villages and buy food to eat. Jesus’ response was, “You feed them.” This surprised the disciples. They had given him a suggestion and he turned it all...
1 Corinthians 12:4-14
1 Corinthians 12:4-14 Paul is writing to the Corinthians because he has heard of difference in the congregation. He is distressed that the congregation of believers is rent with schisms, and I see our congregation in the reading. Partly, this divisiveness may be understood on differences in the conceptions of how a pastor is to relate to the parishioners and how that was affected by the Covid-19 quarantine. Ironically, however, their tendency toward divisiveness was also fueled by the way the...
Keep Looking
I like to do “hidden object” puzzles. The objects to find can be text, sometimes it’s silhouette pictures, and sometimes the whole familiar picture is reverse. Regardless, I have often found that I cannot find an object no matter how hard I look, only to see that it was right in plain sight, or was not what I expected. Sometimes I think we fail to observe God’s grace that is right in front of us. We’re too busy in our everyday lives and expect His grace to be obvious. It is not—it is subtle,...
Psalm 119:73-80
Psalm 119:73-80 This psalm is very personal. The psalmist is in deep sorrow. He hopes that his sorrow will become a blessing. He attempts to teach, but God is using this time to teach him. He prays for experience. He asks God to baffle (bewilder) the proud and to gather together the godly. Lastly he asks God to equip him to bear witness. He is anxious but still remains hopeful even though he is afflicted by cruel adversaries. He is appealing to God as a friend. Let us appeal to God as...
1 Samuel 2:8-9
1 Samuel 2:8-9 I was once advised by a Christian friend, “If you worry, don’t pray and if you pray, don’t worry.” Anyone who prays about an issue and asks God to take care of it and then continues to worry about it insults our awesome God. Of course, that’s easy to say, but far more difficult to put into practice. The world is a worrisome place as I write this. We are rightly concerned about the pandemic, although it seems to be easing. Then there is the war in Ukraine, as they defend...
