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Friday, January 31, 2014

Pastor's Penpoint - "Sweet!" - February 2014

It's the month of valentines, chocolates, flowers and those little heart candies that read "SAY YES" and "ONLY YOU" and "BE MINE". Sweet! This time of year always reminds me of grade school, when the teacher allowed us to make an individual homemade "mailbox" so we could hopefully receive a landslide of paper valentines. I never got that many but each year I found myself surprised by receiving one or two valentines from kids I never dreamed even knew my name. It's possible those came from kids whose parents made them send valentines to everyone so no one in the class would feel left out, but I didn't care. At least my mailbox had valentines in it.

Wouldn't you be surprised to know that someone is crazy in love with you!? Well, it's true ... and it's God himself.The whole purpose of us being alive is to know Him and His love for us. Each day He sends a unique and personal valentine. A gorgeous sunset, a peek at a newborn baby, spring flowers popping out of the ground, the beat of a song you like, the endless and tasty variety of food... Well, you get what I mean. God's valentine never stop.

 I still have trouble grasping a love that deep from the Creator and Lord of the universe. I mean, who am I to deserve something like that? And God doesn't love us as a mass group. He loves us individually! It's hard to get my arms around - but I sure feel His arms around me to know it's true.

Whether you're having a joy-filled morning, a ridiculously busy lunch, a boring afternoon, a crazy chaotic evening, or a sleepless night, you can be sure that God feels everyone of your emotions and wants you to talk about it with Him. And when you speak to Him, He cherishes your voice, did you know that? Yep, that's why He made it sound just the way it does.

God himself tells us He is the lover of our souls. He has planned our lives with all the anticipation and excitement of a surprise party. Each day is an opportunity to open His presents and presence. But instead of looking for these loving gifts, we sometimes become numb and bored toward them. We even stop noticing they occur.

So this February 14th, please don't only look in your mailbox for valentines. Because God's expressions of love don't always fit in there. Look around you and inside of yourself for messages of passion from the One who loves you more than anyone ever could ... God. I promise you will hear His voice calling out to you with the words "SAY YES" and "ONLY YOU" and "BE MINE". Sweet!

~ Todd

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Pastor's Penpoint - "Walking Close to Thee" - January 2014

It's the start of a New Year so we all begin thinking towards those resolutions. Actually I am not a big fan of them. I think that we generally don't follow them anyway. When we really resolve to do something to change our lives, it is usually at a time in our life when we see the need for change. Of course if a resolution works for you, then great!

 A resolution usually means that we want to resolve to improve or better ourselves and that's always good, especially in the spiritual areas of our lives. I'm always for anything to improve our lives and relationships with our Lord. When it boils down to it, bettering ourselves as Christians involves bettering our relationships with God. We have to draw closer to Him before we can improve our Christian lives. Sure we can make a New Year's resolution to do that but I think just resolving, day by day, gets the job done in a better way.

Do you remember the old hymn? "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." I can remember that playing off a record when I was little. Okay, some of you don't know what those are? Round things us ancient people used to play on machines that went round and round called record players. An old form of a cd:) We had a record in our family, I think by Tennessee Ernie Ford with that old song on it and I can remember learning the words when I was quite young.

I am weak but Thou art strong, Jesus keep me from all wrong;
I'll be satisfied as long, as I walk let me walk close to Thee!
Just a closer walk with Thee, grant it Jesus, is my plea;
Daily walking close to Thee, Let it be dear Lord, Let it be.

We've all got to walk the Christian life just one day at a time. That in turn will cause us to have that improvement in our Christian life that we all so greatly need. Just resolve to live better for God, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment and that will add up to our best for Him not only for this New Year but for our entire lives as well.

May you New Year be blessed ... and may you be a blessing!

~ Pastor Todd