activities

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When Something Important Is Kept From You

Have you ever thought that something had been kept from you? You know, when you were little and you caught bits and pieces of a conversation your parents were having?

RoadBlockage

You were dying to know what they were talking about, but you were not permitted to hear the details. They kept them from you.

Have you ever thought God might do that with us from time to time?

… Like when two disciples were walking with Jesus and they didn’t realize it was him until after he left them? The Bible says “then their minds were opened”.

A couple of days ago we came up to our cottage to spend a week. It was still April and this was the first time we were up since we closed the place in the fall.

On arrival everything looked in order. It was nice to see the digs had stood up to the winter and won!

We turned everything back on but when I went to turn on the furnace, because it was still April, and it is Sauble Beach, I got no heat.

The furnace came on; I could hear the roar of the blower. I heard the click of the igniter to fire up the furnace, but all that came out of the ducts was cool air.

I checked everything, the switch, the circuit breaker, the gas. It was all working but still no heat.

I worked for about two hours in the cold; I was chilled and frustrated. I couldn’t think of anything else I could do. It had to be a furnace problem; I would have to call a service guy.

But that would be in the morning, and we needed a way to keep warm that night! I borrowed a space heater from my brother’s cottage, and Lily and I went out for dinner, so that I could get warm.

And just to make sure we were going to be warm enough, we also bought a space heater of our own.

That night we were warm alright – almost too warm. In the middle of the night we had to shed some of the covers that we had piled on the bed.

The next morning when I woke up, I lay in bed and an idea popped into my brain. I think God put it there. I think I was kept from that thought the night before.

As I lay in bed, I remembered that we had put duct tape over the furnace exhaust vents in the fall. I realized there probably was a safety feature on the furnace that wouldn’t allow it to fire up if the vents were blocked.

I jumped out of bed, went outside, took off the tape, came back in and “budda boom, budda bing” the furnace worked like a charm.

I shared the tale with some people who told me that a guy had done the same thing years ago, and almost died of carbon monoxide poisoning! They got him out just in time. Wow! Thanks, God.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes we’re blocked from getting what we need. God may have a reason for keeping things from us. Be aware that blockages are possible, and when you’re frustrated, seek God. Determine to obey Him and ask Him to reveal what the blockage is and how to remove it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When was the last time you felt frustrated and blocked from something you needed? Leave your comment below.

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Old Friends Don’t Get Old

Old friends never get old. Well, I guess they do get older, but it’s never old being with them again.

Memory Lane

When you’re with old friends, you talk about things that happened a long time ago and you remember them as if they just happened. You relive the past in the present time.

There is a sense that time stands still when you are with old friends. Even though we don’t have the same physique we once had, and parts of our bodies don’t work as well as they used to, somehow we are able to see ourselves in alter states of say 20 or 30 years in the past.

It’s a curious thing. But much like the size of the fisherman’s catch that got away, our stories seem bigger and better. They amuse and excite others; we get built up in their eyes … or at least our own eyes.

It’s not that it happens all the time. The mood or the atmosphere has to be right to bring back the past in such technicolour, with such glory.

It happened just the other day. Lily and I were with an old friend we went to Bible College with. We’d been watching hockey on TV and I can’t even tell you how the conversation got started.

But one memory connected to another and soon the TV was off (after the game of course), and we were into full-blown nostalgia mode.

You could see it in the eyes and expressions of our kids as they listened on and on to stories they had been part of – tales that were foggy at best in their minds, but were now developing real substance and a vivid image in their newly refined memories.

Some of those stories will be told to their children; some of them will be acted out before their children with a bigger and better feel to them:

… The story of football games in the family room, how I fixed the score before we started, just to create tension and excitement in my kids till they almost burst.

… The stories of back when we were in school, the antics in the dorms that became legendary at the college. It was like we were the heroes of old, the past celebrities recounting life as it was when they were stars.

Those moments create a warm feeling that draws everyone in the room closer together like there is some secret information that they are now privileged to care for … like they’ve been invited into the inner circle.

You just don’t want those times to end; you wish they could continue forever. You want to talk and listen, and continue to light up the eyes of your kids. But you realize that you’re not that age any more. You get tired and can’t pull the all-nighters of the olden days.

You snap back to the reality of the present, and become cognisant that you are thirty pounds heavier, your hair is thinning, and you don’t look anything like the guy in the stories.

But it was great to go back there for a while.

Here’s the thing: You can remember the past, visit the past, make the past seem bigger and better than real life. But you can’t bring the past back to life; you can’t live in the past. So let the past teach you; let it inspire you to live in the present in such a way that you will want to bring colour to this present again. And may God be glorified in those memories.

Question: What were the circumstance that led to your last memory fest? Leave your comments below.

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You Need A Good Navigator In Life

When you get married, one thing you should look for in your spouse is their aptitude for navigation. We all need good navigators in life and when you’re traveling, it’s especially important.

Navigation-car

It’s not easy to figure out if your spouse or spouse-to-be is a good navigator because usually navigating is done in collaboration.

If you’re traveling by car, you both read the signs, and talk about the route and advantages of traveling one way over another. You can actually go for years without really knowing if your spouse is a good navigator.

But when you find yourself in a situation where you don’t speak the language, and can’t read the signs, that’s when you find out what kind of navigating skills your spouse has.

We just got back from a trip to Quebec City and Lily navigated the way; she also can speak a little bit of French.

I have to say, there were times when she let me down. We had to make a few “back around agains” to correct a few navigational mistakes.

There were even a couple of times when she didn’t know what to do, so I just made a turn and miraculously got us going in the right direction.

One quality of a good navigator is their ability to be decisive. My navigator sounded decisive every time she said something. However, she would correct herself several times on every instruction, each time with great authority in her voice.

One time we were on a highway that was dividing. You had to choose: stay left or take the right ramp. It’s always best to be in the middle lane in these situations; that way you have the option of going left or right.

However, with the back and forth decision making, “stay left .  . . no, go right . . . wait, ya I think we should go left”, I felt like I was stick-handling up the ice, trying to deke the defenseman in front of me. … only the defenseman turned out to be several plastic barrels filled with sand or water that were in between the division of the highway.

I narrowly swerved around the lead barrel and took the left passageway, just like my navigator instructed, with mere seconds to spare.

I wiped the sweat from my brow, and only then did she look up from her google maps to see I was on the right road. She completely missed the move I put on those barrels.

There were other times that Lily’s navigating skills got us directly to the place we wanted to go. Every day was a new assignment for her, every trip into Quebec City from our Mont-Sainte-Anne headquarters was a fresh adventure.

All in all, Lily did a great job navigating us in and around Quebec City. If I had to do it all over again, I’d still pick her as my navigator.

Here’s the thing: We all need a good navigator in our lives – not just someone to help us get to a driving destination; we need a navigator for life. It’s best to choose a navigator who can speak the language and preferably has  already been where you want to go. We have that navigator in Jesus Christ, who is more than willing to help us negotiate the most difficult of turns and circumstances we will face along the way in life. Why don’t we consult Him more often? Why don’t we rely on Him all the time? Don’t keep going on your own; turn to Christ to help you navigate your way through this life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What keeps you from seeking Christ’s help in navigating your life? Leave your comment below.

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When It Rains, Make the Best Of It

I know the rhyme that goes, “April showers brings May flowers”, but I can’t say there is ever a time I like the rain.

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If I was a farmer, I’m sure I would change my tune. I understand that we need rain for things to grow, but given my life, rain doesn’t really fit into the picture that often … at all.

It especially doesn’t fit into my plans when I’m on vacation – it puts all kinds of restrictions on us and creates the need for extra planning.

That’s where we are right now – on vacation in the rain.

Sometimes you can associate a place with the kind of weather you experienced there. Like when I was about seven, my family took a vacation to the east coast of Canada. The only things I remember were cool days, overcast skies, rain and the smell of dead fish.

Needless to say, that over 50 years later, I’m still not eager to take another trip to the Bay of Fundy. The rain took all the fun out of the bay for me.

I don’t want my trip to Quebec City to be etched in my mind the same way. And that’s where I am right now, listening to the pitter patter of the rain on the window, as I contemplate the day ahead.

If it rained only at night that would be awesome. We could do all our sightseeing and traipsing around in the sun and be inside at night. I could live with that. It’s still April; it’s not going to be that warm at night anyway.

The best would be if it never rained, but the dew from the night would be enough to give the earth the watering it needed. That’s that way it was before God brought the flood.

If it hadn’t have been for Adam and Eve and their relatives ruining what God had originally made, it’s possible that no golf course would ever need a sprinkler system to water its course. It would all happen naturally at night.

Well, we know we’re not headed back in that direction, so rain is what we are stuck with. We need it, but we dislike it. It gets in the way of what we want to do, but if we didn’t have it, we would be crying for it.

So on our trip to Quebec, it’s umbrellas for sure! it’s planning our day around the rain and it’s making the best of what we have.

We are looking for those windows of sunshine to visit the places that would be miserable in the rain. And we are planning those indoor sights during times when it doesn’t matter how hard the rain comes down.

So far so good. Yesterday we managed to manoeuvre our sightseeing around the rain like we had a degree in meteorology.

No, that’s not true – weathermen are never right – more like a farmer who has an arthritic left knee.

Here’s the thing: We should make the best of what we have. Look for what we can do, instead of what we can’t. We should see the possible, not the impossible. There is something in us, however, that is drawn to the negative. We remember it so well. When that emotion starts to take over, seek the God of hope, who is with us, so we don’t lose hope in our present situation but believe God has a plan that will negotiate any condition we find ourselves in.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What typically has the power to get you thinking negatively? Leave your comment below.

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Keep Those Hot Cross Buns Coming

Today we dug into our last package of hot cross buns. I love those things and for many years they were only available in short supply right around Good Friday. Now they show up in grocery stores more often.

hot cross buns

That’s a good thing, because I could eat them all year long. Even though raisin bread is available in the stores throughout the year, it’s not the same as hot cross buns.

I’m not sure why they call them “hot” cross buns; we just pulled our last package out of the freezer. They weren’t hot, rather they were frozen rock solid.

But I guess they put “hot” in the name because that’s how you eat them. Have you every tried cold cross buns? They’re not that good; I wouldn’t eat them, or at least that many.

I don’t even like to pick off a loose raisin and eat it before it gets toasted. If a raisin falls off when I cut the bun in half, I stick that raisin back into the bun so I can savour the taste later when it’s hot.

I’m lucky to be eating hot cross buns a week or two after Easter. Back in the 1500’s, Queen Elizabeth I outlawed the sale of hot cross buns outside of Good Friday or Christmas.

The history behind them is that hot cross buns were a reminder of Jesus’ death on the cross. … I can’t say that every time I eat a hot cross bun I remember the cross of Christ. Maybe I should.

Maybe with all the availability of hot cross buns now, it has taken the symbolism away – we don’t even think of the cross.

I’m sure some people don’t even notice that the markings are supposed to be a cross.

The cross isn’t even their biggest feature anymore. The packages advertise “with extra raisins”. And that’s a real selling point for me – the more raisins the better.

The cross actually stirs up religious controversy. Some religious people think that they have become far too available, and have lost the meaning.

Some reformers dislike them, not because they don’t lend to their palette, but because they see them as more of a Catholic superstition.

Some people think they should take the cross off the buns year round and only put the cross on them when they are sold at Easter time.

Personally, I would eat them cross or no cross … they taste good. I don’t buy them because they have a cross on them, I just like them.

Now I’m sounding like Matthew McConaughey selling Lincolns in televisions ads. Only I’m pushing hot cross buns and not getting paid for it.

There’s got to be something wrong with that.

Here’s the thing: We shouldn’t need a cross on a bun to remind us of Christ’s death, especially at Easter time. We should remember Christ all year long. We should have a daily reminder that Christ is with us all day long. You could keep a symbol with you, but often with symbols, we get so used to seeing them, that we don’t really see them anymore. The best way I can think of is to, at the beginning of your day, take time with Christ. I read in a book once where a famous pastor would swing out of bed in such a way that his knees hit the floor first. So before he took one step in the day he took time to invite Christ into his day. It’s something to keep in mind.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you remember to invite Christ into your day? Leave your comment below.

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I Was Driving Myself Crazy

I came to realize about a month or so ago that my driving was leaving much to be desired. It’s not that I can’t negotiate a left hand turn, or parallel park my car. The handling of my automobile is just fine.

stop texing

It was my attitude behind the wheel that left much to be desired. I found I was getting too upset when I drove; other drivers did things that literally were driving me crazy.

But that wasn’t healthy for me, or for others on the road, and it wasn’t showing me to be under God’s control either. So over the last month or so, I’ve taken some measures.

I’ve slowed down, and consciously thought, “I don’t need to race to where I’m going”. I’ve started to allow more room between my car and the vehicle in front of me.

Life’s been good. Well . . . that is until the other day when I found myself behind a car with a bumper sticker in the shape of a stop sign that read, “STOP TEXTING”.

My wife will tell you that I’m not very good at texting and driving, though that’s just the back seat driver in her talking.

But seriously, I try not to text while I’m driving. I use a bluetooth speaker to make and receive calls, so when I read the bumper sticker, it didn’t dawn on me that the sticker was shouting out at me.

However, after following the car for only a few seconds, the sticker was actually shouting out at that car’s driver. I found myself reading the sticker and then looking in disbelief at the driver through her rear window.

She wasn’t paying attention to the road! When the way was clear to make a right hand turn, I could see her head bent down. She crossed the line a couple of times, again doing what looked like bending down to get something.

One car beside her had to move over for fear of getting sideswiped.

I read the sign again, “STOP TEXTING” and said (in a calm voice, because now my attitude was in check), “Ya, stop doing whatever you’re doing and drive”.

Eventually I pulled up in the other lane and passed her. I thought it might be better if she was behind me rather than directly in front of me … FAR behind me.

I took a look at her as I went by; she seemed oblivious to how she’d been driving. She didn’t look like a texter. She had grey hair – the majority of her hair was quite grey. Enough said.

I don’t think she was texting. I do think that she believes it’s very dangerous to text while driving and that it angers her to see someone doing it.

But after driving behind her for a few minutes, I wished she had a sticker on her car that read, “KEEP YOUR EYES ABOVE THE DASHBOARD”, maybe even a bobble head sign that sat on her dashboard.

As I glanced behind me, I realized my blood pressure hadn’t risen a bit. Now that’s progress!

Here’s the thing: We might get upset with those that text and drive because it’s distracting and dangerous. Whatever she was doing was also distracting and dangerous. … It’s easy to see the sin in other people. But if seeing their sin gets you angry, then evaluate yourself. There’s a good chance you are harbouring a similar sin. Deal with your sin, and you will find compassion to help others deal with theirs instead of judging them.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you learned about yourself by watching others? Leave your comment below.

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Make Good On Your Promise

In my last blog, I wrote about how saying “sorry” doesn’t make good on your promise to deal with the hurt one’s received. (Check out that blog here!)

credit card reward points

I just got a new credit card for the precise purpose of collecting reward points. This will eventually enable me to purchase a new cell phone on points.

The reason the credit card company was trying to communicate how terribly sorry they were is because they declined my card on my third purchase … MY THIRD PURCHASE!

My card is through Rogers Bank, and why wouldn’t they have a bank? They own television stations, a cable company, an internet service, and a cell phone provider. They need a bank.

My first purchase on the card was for $24 at Swiss Chalet for a meal with my wife and son. With my initial purchase I got 5,000 points, and that’s $50 towards a new phone.

Two days later, I followed that purchase up with one for about $100 to my auto mechanic. That’s the first time I’ve actually been slightly disappointed that my repair bill was so low.

I had anticipated a bill of around $300-$500 and in my head I was thinking cha-ching – rewards points, come to papa!

You can imagine my dismay now that my bill will be getting me less than half the points I had pre-calculated.

The very next day we had scheduled a hot water tank replacement. I specifically told Lily we would be using my new card since the purchase would be around $1000 and I would pocket about two thousand points for the purchase.

That’s when Rogers Bank ran out of money. I just started with the guys, but they weren’t expecting me to purchase something over $500, I guess.

I have a limit of $10,000 on the card – you’d think they would allow me to put that much on it … I only wanted a thousand.

Their reason for declining my card was that it was out of my regular pattern.

I replied to the guy on the phone, “Out of my regular pattern?! How can I have a pattern?! I just got the card four days ago and this is my third purchase!”

Of course, he was very sorry for the inconvenience, “and the embarrassment” I added.

I’m not sure Rogers Bank is going to make it. The guy I talked to couldn’t give me rewards points for my lost points on the declined purchase. His supervisor also didn’t have the authority to give me those rewards points.

These Rogers rewards points must really be worth a lot or they are running this bank on a shoestring.

It’s been four days since my decline, eight days since I’ve had my card. I haven’t seen any reward points yet – not the bonus points I was promised and no word from the president of Rogers as to whether they will break their piggy bank and give me some “sorry” points. I’m waiting . . . patiently.

Heres the thing: Have you promised God that you’d give Him your life? But you’ve actually kept control of some or a good portion of it for yourself? All that does is cause Him to question your sincerity. Make good on your promises and let Him lead. Don’t frustrate God’s plan by holding back and not giving Him everything you promised.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you most tempted to hold back from giving to God? Leave your comment below.

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What A Mind I Have!

Sometimes our minds surprise us; sometimes they let us down.

i-forgot-day

It is a rare occasion when I’ve finished writing my sermon before about 6 pm on Friday night. But this past week I finished writing my sermon at 1:40 pm.

I can’t tell you how good it felt to be done that early in the day. It was like a burden had been lifted from me.

There is a weight that preachers carry with them as they prepare sermons. It feels heavy like a backpack that you can’t take off until you get to your destination.

But when the sermon is done, the backpack comes off and you feel light again.

I celebrated by going for lunch. I decide to try a new chicken fast food restaurant close by and I even got myself a pop. I was feeling good.

The crazy thing was, though I finished my sermon in record time for once, I still had more writing to do. So after a not-so-inspiring chicken lunch celebration, I was back at it. This time writing a funeral message.

The amazing thing was I was still focussed and by 6 pm I had finished that message and I was really done for the night.

I was feeling great, mentally exhausted, but ecstatic that I was all done.

In the evening, Lily and I went to a store and saw someone we knew from a distance. About two minutes after that I realized how my mind had let me down despite how focussed I’d been in writing messages that day.

Seeing that guy reminded me that I had forgotten to do something very important earlier in the day.

My message had flowed out of me like a tap turned all the way on, but I had forgotten to fill the baptistry tank in the sanctuary!

You see, another church had asked to use our church for a baptism service on Sunday afternoon and the guy I saw Friday night while shopping was from that church. Seeing him triggered my memory.

For a Sunday baptism, the tank must be filled and the heater turned on by Friday so the water will be warm enough.

I was ripped, upset at myself for not remembering. I was devastated that I would have to spend the rest of the evening babysitting a baptistry tank (it’s a 2 hour process).

How could my mind be so sharp that day but still let me down so badly?

I wanted to blame someone, or something, for how my day turned out. But in the end I had no one to blame but myself.

Here’s the thing: When something goes wrong, we want to blame someone else. It doesn’t change the outcome, but we feel justified being angry at whomever we pin the fault on … even if it’s God. However, accepting responsibility enables us to see how God works things out. I normally have a long day writing a sermon. This week God enabled me to write both messages in the time it usually takes to write one. Though the baptistry issue cost me time Friday night, God used that guy I saw to remind me about what I’d forgotten. When I put the blame in the proper place I can see how God helps me even when my mind lets me down.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How has your mind amazed you and failed you in the same day? Leave your comment below.

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My Car’s Been Talking To Me

Car maintenance has never been my strong suit. I have not always even been successful at making sure I had gas in the tank to keep my cars rolling – my dad used to call this practice “driving on fumes”.

car on hoist

It takes discipline to keep an automobile in good shape and I’m not even that disciplined at getting regular oil changes … “regular” for me is between 5,000 – 12,000 kilometres, or every three to five months.

I have a neighbour who faithfully washes his cars in his driveway. If I can take my car through the carwash at the gas station a couple of times a year I’m doing good.

That’s what we have rain for, isn’t it? I figure rain is nature doing its thing, helping the grass grow, making the leaves shine, and bringing back the glimmer to the cars on the road.

I am also not good at getting the mechanical parts of the car taken care of. Since the fall I’ve had a little rattle in the front end. I know what it is; I’ve had it before.

I need a new link kit. Now, I can’t really tell you what a link kit looks like or exactly what it does, but it has something to do with stopping that sound my car makes when I drive over a pot hole, or an uneven surface.

This link kit may even be instrumental in maintaining connection between my front wheel and the car, because now that it is long past the fall, my wife is telling me that she fears the wheel is going to come off some time when she’s driving.

Though it’s true that any mechanical failure that could happen to the car will happen when she’s driving, I’m not positive but I don’t think the wheel is going to come off.

Still I need to “put a man on it”, and get this work done on the car.

It used to be easier to do this kind of thing. I would book an appointment and Lily would shuttle me in our other car. It was that simple.

That process is not as easy right now. Our son has our other car most of the time so I need to coordinate with his schedule which seems to be rather full and unpredictable.

I just haven’t made an attempt to figure out a time.

And while all this nothing has been going on, the roads in Kingston (that were once paved with gold but now need some gold plating work) are really making my car sound worse and worse.

Lily is amazed that I’ve been able to put up with the sound for so long, but I just turn up the radio a little louder.

OK!  . . .  I’m going to make an appointment today to take my car in.

Here’s the thing: There are things you know you should do. Maybe God revealed something to you in prayer, and then you read something in the Bible that challenged you in the same area.  You may have even had other people in your life speak to you about that very thing. But there’s that sound, it’s getting louder but you’re not doing anything about it. Don’t put it off any longer. Decide today, right now, and begin to address that something that God wants you to work on.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you been putting off that you need to do today? Leave your comment below.

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Inspiration Can Be Unexpected 

This is a re-post of a blog I published on November 20, 2012. What I wrote is good for me and all of us to keep in mind. Enjoy.

Inspiration can come at any time – sometimes when we least expect it.  This week I was woken up at 5 am with inspiration.  I don’t normally get up at 5.  

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My alarm regularly goes off at 6 am and if it doesn’t, I’m afraid that I would naturally wake up around the time my 21 year old son does on a Saturday.  Does noon sound like a good time to get up?

Five in the morning was pretty early for me to wake up on my own, but there I was, wide awake, looking at the red glowing numbers on our ceiling. 

I like my projection clock because I don’t find the blazing white light of an alarm clock staring me in the face when I turn in bed … that’s too much like heading down a tunnel with a bright light at the end of it! 

This particular morning I wasn’t just awake; I was awake and focused.  My mind was fully engaged and I was ready to get out of bed.  

I had struggled the day before putting my sermon outline together, and just couldn’t see how I should organize what the passage was communicating.  

I was extremely frustrated and my deadline for completing my sermon was clearly on my mind and getting closer.

In the midst of my frustration I did what you are supposed to do when you are in a jam – I prayed. I asked God to help me complete my outline.  

After all, I want to preach what God wants the congregation to hear; it’s really His message.  Maybe that bugged me even more when I didn’t get the outline by the end of the day.

The week before I had been in a similar place and somehow it all came together by Friday.  But that was last week.  That was little comfort given my current situation; I was not happy.

It’s totally quiet in our house at 5 in the morning … not even the turtle is stirring at that time of day.  What woke me up, and what captivated my thoughts was my message.  

I popped out of bed, and for the next hour I finished putting together my outline.  It was all in my head; my mind was brimming with words and verses and how they connected together.  

It wasn’t like I was working; it was more like I was a secretary taking dictation. God had filled my mind with what He wanted communicated. 

I closed my computer at 6:08 and got ready for my 7 am men’s prayer meeting.  

I was energized, my outline was complete, and I wasn’t just ready to write my sermon, I was eager to get at it!  It’s funny how God didn’t give me the outline piece by piece the day before when I had asked Him.  

Instead, He put it all in my head during the night.

Here’s the thing:  I write a sermon every week and I can become comfortable thinking that it is my sermon, my message that He’s helping me complete.  This week God reminded me that it is His message, and His sermon that I preach.  No matter what we do, we work for Him; He doesn’t work for us.  How often do we forget that? 

That’s Life!

Pastor Paul

Question: What has God inspired you with this past year?  Leave your comments below.