Tuesday, Mar 31, 2009

3/31 - Don't Sweat The Bad Times

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It’s not even April 1st yet, and it has been a rough couple of days! I didn’t publish TWG yesterday because the night before I couldn’t get to sleep until the weee hours… I should have been praying because yesterday was a humdinger! Our broken down SUV has a blown engine! 2 to 5 thousand to fix it! OUCH. Then we got some good news… two applicants for our empty rentals… yay! Maybe the day will have some redeeming qualities about it. Then first one applicant called to say she has to back out and then the other got a horrible recommendation so… now we are down to none again. And I still have to finish my taxes! UGH! I think I’m standing in the need of prayer. Please pray for us!

Today is March 31, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. This is your invitation to take one step forward every day in your relationship with Christ. We invite you to do something unbelievably radical. We invite you to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Jesus

Today's Scripture reading is Judges 17; Proverbs 12; Luke 16
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.podbean.com
Archives can be found at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com

Today’s thought comes from 2 Thessalonians 2:8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

Let’s fast forward to the end of the Antichrist. It’s good to know the ending, because when you are eyeball to eyeball with alligators, it’s kind of tough to trust that Tarzan will somehow swoop in and save you at the last second. It’s pretty difficult to focus on anything but those great big snapping jaws lined with dozens of razor sharp teeth! It sure would be nice to hear the piercing cry of the jungle king right about now! (help!) But God is not Tarzan! He’s much better… and much more powerful. In the end it’s nothing more than His minty breath and bright personality that destroys the Antichrist. Christ doesn’t even have to lift a finger, he just has to breathe the word and Antichrist is incinerated! He just has to show up on the scene and the Lawless One is obliterated, wiped out, done, finished for good. God help us to remember that. God help us to believe that! Trust is the BIG issue. It’s all about trust. It’s all about understanding and digesting who God is. God is ALL POWERFUL. When He decides it’s time, there’s no colossal, universal struggle to defeat His enemies. He just says one little itsy bitsy word and it’s over. “Goodbye, you are the weakest link.” Now we, on the other hand, are engaged in a colossal struggle because we are frail human beings subject to weakness, mistakes, failed strategy, sickness and death. Say you are facing someone as tough as Bruce Willis in Die Hard or as indestructible as Rambo. I’ m running scared already! But what if you had to face the million man army of China by yourself or defeat the nuclear arsenal of Russia or some other rogue nation with just a knife between your teeth. You’d be in serious trouble. But don’t think for a second that God is limited in any way by your weakness or by their power. God can yawn and do his fingernails with his eyes closed and his hands tied behind his back, while solving Sudoku and still win the day. I wish I could think of an analogy to explain how powerful God is and how puny man is, but there isn’t one. The entire universe is like a pebble in his hand! He can blow it all away in one tiny breath like a child does with a dandelion. I’m talking the ENTIRE universe! How are you going to defeat a God like that! And if you are on His side, what’s to be afraid of. So they’re tying you to the railroad track, or They have a pressure sensitive bomb strapped to your chair, Or they have a gun to your head? SO WHAT! Hey, God, could you like take care of my HUGE car problem and HUGE rental problem… Piece of cake. Just tune in to God’s plan and go with the flow. God’s not sweating it! He’s got you covered. TRUST HIS PLAN – not yours!

Dear Almighty God. I know that you are in control. Help me to get my eyes of my problems and realize that your plan is the one that counts. Help me to say with Job, “even if He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” And “even if the fig tree doesn’t blossom, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. He is my strength.”

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:16 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

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