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  • Don't Leave The Leftovers

    Don't Leave The Leftovers
    2024/11/03
    Many people do not like leftovers. However, there are times when we have leftovers out of necessity. We may feel guilty leaving food on the table when we go out to eat. It feels wasteful. Sometimes, we may ask for the uneaten food to be boxed up to take home, only to forget it when we leave the table. The problem is that our bellies are full, and we are so caught up in our conversation that we forget. Our society is so blessed that we throw away almost 40% of the food supply in our market. Some of the food never even makes it to our table because it is misshapen or blemished somehow. There are people around the world who are so hungry that they would do anything to have what we throw away out of our surplus. This same concept applies in the spiritual realm. Some people live in conditions that keep them from openly worshiping, and who would do anything to have the opportunity we have. In times of famine, people will eat whatever they can. It is by God's blessing that we enjoy the bounty and life that we have. The old prayer we recite before meals as children says it is by His hands we are fed. In our plenty, it is all too easy to think that we are providing, but the reality is that ALL blessings and provisions come from God. Even in times of famine, God provides. When Joseph was in Egypt, there was a famine all across the land, but God provided bread in Egypt. Jesus fed the masses with loaves and fishes. He then instructed the disciples to gather the remnants. No matter how little we have, God can take what we have and do something with it. We may be satisfied, but someone needs what we have left. Even a crumb can be sufficient. In our text, the woman comes to Jesus and cries out. Jesus ignores her, and the disciples ask Jesus to send her away. In her desperation, this woman realizes that her crying may make her feel better in the moment, but she needs more; her daughter is still vexed. She moves past crying and begins to worship Him. Jesus told her that because she was a Canaanite woman, it was not proper for him to help her. He refers to her as a dog. Undeterred, she responds with, yes, but even the dogs get the crumbs from the master's table. Jesus tells her, "Great is your faith," and heals her daughter. We need whatever we can get from God. We must position ourselves where we can get something from God.
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    50 分
  • We Can't Stay Long

    We Can't Stay Long
    2024/10/28
    When visiting friends and family or attending a party, we sometimes have a notion of how much time we want to spend there. We may even arrange a signal with our spouse to avoid staying too long. In our text, Israel had been at Mt. Horeb for some time. They had become comfortable, but God told them it was time to move. There are wilderness times and times of waiting, but these are temporary. God is taking us somewhere that is better than where we are now. God tells them to leave Horeb and to possess the promised land. In other chapters, God goes on to tell them to destroy all the inhabitants of the land and to drive them out entirely. Failing to do this would result in ruin. God warned them about intermarrying and taking on the Canaanite culture. Unfortunately, Israel did not drive the Canaanites out, and as God said, Israel was influenced by their culture. In time, it was hard to differentiate between God's people and the people of Canaan. We cannot live too close to the world without it affecting our thoughts and attitudes. We cannot be complacent. We cannot become comfortable with where we are. It is not that we have left the truth, but we cannot stay when God continues to move. We can't stay long.
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    1 時間 9 分
  • No Regrets

    No Regrets
    2024/10/27
    The Jews are God's chosen people, but it appeared that they had rejected God. It would be easy to conclude that because the Jews rejected Him, God would turn His back on them. Our text, however, dispels that thought. This is not about Jew or Gentile; it is about God's plan. God's plan is inclusive and meant for all humanity. The door may be closed at the moment, but it is not a permanent closure. Once made, God's promise is forever. That is true no matter what the current circumstance might be. We may feel that God has forsaken us, but it is not true. Feelings are not the thermostat of our life. Faith is. Feelings are about me; faith is about Him. Our relationship with God is about faith. God will not write us off as lost no matter where we are. He will try to communicate in some other way. We have made life about us. When we worship, we shift that focus to Him. God does not regret calling us. He does not regret Calvary.
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    45 分
  • The Joyful Sound

    The Joyful Sound
    2024/10/13
    Our text from Psalms is an encouragement and coach on how to live life. The singer declares that blessed is someone who knows the joyful sound, for they will walk in the light. Life has a way of wearing on us. If we are not careful, we allow life's situations and challenges to set a dark tone over our lives. When we utter the joyful sound noted in this psalm, we rebuke the darkness the enemy wants to cast over us. Far too many people allow the challenges in life to sour their view of how blessed they are. Even amid the most challenging trials, we have hope in the love and faithfulness of God. Happiness is not determined by wealth or the things we possess. Solomon was the wisest and most wealthy man of his time. But even in that, he allowed a shift in his thinking to change his focus, which led to his undoing. We see evidence of this decline in the opening chapters of Ecclesiastics. Solomon mentions himself in the form of I or me forty-three times but only mentions God four times. When we make life about us, there is no room for God. When life is about us, we are miserable to be around. Solomon also began to compare himself to others. When we compare ourselves to others, we often find ourselves lacking or a disparity that we perceive to be not in our favor. Comparison leads to unthankfulness and unthankfulness to resentment. This psalm was written amid the darkest time in Hebrew history. Solomon's undoing had ended the house of David. Israel lay in ruins, and God's people were in captivity. Somehow, the writer looks through all that, turns his focus back to God, and declares a truism that will lift the spirit. God is a covenant-keeping God. Things might have looked bad, but God's promise was still intact. What is that joyful sound? It is praising during trouble with the knowledge that God will sustain and deliver. We must not let life take that joyful sound.
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    51 分
  • Ready For The Real Thing

    Ready For The Real Thing
    2024/10/13
    Many of us buy store-branded items to save money. These off-brand items are usually good, but sometimes, they do not measure up to the real product. Spiritually, there is no substitute for a genuine move of God. We can have moving experiences, but unless God is there, it is like those off-brand items: good, but they do not measure up. The enemy would like nothing more than for us to have these off-brand experiences and never achieve a genuine relationship with God. Children have vivid imaginations. Pastor Long shared a story about a toy tea set his sister had when she was a little girl. It was a cute table with a plastic teapot and tea cups. She could pretend to have tea parties, but there was never any tea because the settings were just toys. They looked cute; she could pretend to have tea but never have the real experience. Paul said, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things." The toy tea set may have given Pastor's sister practice at having tea parties, but to have the whole experience, she would have to put away the toys and get an actual tea set. God is calling us to real experiences and relationships. Our world does not need childhood tea-party faith. When we tell someone we will pray for them, They need genuine prayer and faith from a real relationship with God. We must be a real church. We cannot go through the motions of worship; it has to be real. When we come to church, we must come with expectancy and anticipation.
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    57 分
  • The Consequences of Decisions

    The Consequences of Decisions
    2024/10/07
    Decisions have consequences, some good some bad. Our text is the story of Abraham. God tells Abram to depart from his family and that he will be the seed of a great nation. Abram obeys and goes to the land of Canaan. There, God repeats the promise, and Abram builds an altar. For some reason, Abram moves again and builds a second altar between Bethel and Ai. Our text ends with the statement that Abram continued moving south. Dr. Hughes explained that we do not know the location of the first altar or why Abram had decided to move from there. We do know that this continued to move south. The altar location between Bethel and Ai is significant. Bethel means the house of God. Ai is translated as "a heap of ruin." The Bible tells us that Abraham built the altar on a mountain overlooking Bethel and close to Ai. The choice to build here was comfortable. It was close to the house of God but not too close, and it was far enough away from the pile of ruin. The pile of ruin too easily influenced Abraham, and the house of God did not have enough influence. If our altars are in the wrong place, we risk allowing the evil of the world to creep into the church. Our decisions on where to build our altar can affect us, our families, and generations to come.
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    56 分
  • What Is Limiting Your View?

    What Is Limiting Your View?
    2024/10/06
    In our text, God urgently tells Abraham to come outside and look at the heavens, and his offspring will be as numerous as the stars above. God had made this promise to Abraham before. However, at this point, Abraham was close to 100 years old and had no children. Had Abraham looked at the sky inside the tent, he would not have seen the stars. God had to get Abraham outside so he could see the plan. Another translation of the passage says Abraham had to move into the starlight to see what God was showing him. Sometimes, God has to move us to a place where we can see beyond limitations and see what He has for us. God didn't move Abraham halfway around the world; he only had to go outside the flap door of his tent. For others, it is not a physical location but leaving behind past failures to see the future. We look at our past and assume that God cannot possibly want to bless us. Our assumptions on God limit what He can do in our lives. Abraham assumed that he had missed the blessing because of his age, but the Bible says he believed when he stepped outside the tent. What do we assume that is not true? What is limiting our view?
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    46 分
  • On The Other Hand

    On The Other Hand
    2024/09/29
    Decisions are a part of life. Most of us will make a list, weigh the pros and cons, and decide how to proceed. For some, however, decision-making is paralyzing. They may go through the same pro and con analysis, but then they worry about making the wrong decision or disappointing themselves, someone else, or even God. Often, people who find it challenging to make a decision will make no decision, which can result in an even bigger mess. Too often, we see our relationship with God as too fragile to withstand disappointing Him. In some situations, our decisions can alter the course of our lives; however, our relationship with God is not a pass/fail. If we make a wrong choice, the path back to God is one simple step. That one step toward an alter can change the direction, but making that step can be difficult. The enemy wants us to believe everyone is watching and picking out our flaws. In our text, Jesus enters the synagogue. The Pharisees knew why Jesus was there and attempted to entrap Him by asking if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus refutes their trap and asks the man to stretch out his hand. All there knew of his condition. This man may have been active in the church and doing his best with his good hand. Many of us in this situation may have extended the good hand because we are ashamed of the withered one, but Jesus wanted to heal the withered one. We may be doing good work with what we have. We may serve in many capacities, but Jesus wants to make us whole so we can do good works with both hands. We are all caught between the urge to hide our brokenness and the call to be healed. Will we keep holding back or respond to the master when He calls?
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    49 分