The Periodically

I recently expressed my desire to volunteer again with a secular program I'd given volunteer hours to in the past. I was saddened when I learned that they did not need my volunteer role to exist anymore. Being sad isn’t a bad thing. I believe sadness is a tool that God gives us to give us energy and focus to think of how we can best glorify Him. It did just that for me…at first. I was surprised at how long my sadness lasted. I began to dwell on the decision. I began to question the decision. I allowed my emotions and sadness to take control over my thinking. Why was this a struggle for me? I began to look at my heart and saw that I had an idol of wanting my life to go the way that I believed it should go (James 4:1). I had built this construct or mini-kingdom of how my life was supposed to go, and God in His loving sovereignty was not giving me what I wanted (James 4:3). My heart began to rebel as I wanted what I wanted (my mini-kingdom) and n...

Fear is common to man. Each of us can identify situations in life that cause us to be fearful, and certainly there are situations where fear is an appropriate response. For example, there is a certain fear that washes over a parent when she reaches for the hand of her toddler in a busy shopping mall only to discover that the little one’s hand is not there. Fear for the safety of her child compels the mother to act, quickly. Sadly, however, the fear that grips us often is the result of our failure to trust in our gracious and sovereign God (Ps 34:19-20; Luke 12:22-31; John 10:28). King David was accustomed to fear. Recorded for us in the book of the Psalms are several accounts of David’s battle against fear. God has graciously given us instruction for how to combat our fear and an example of this instruction is found in Psalm 56. In this psalm, David has fled for his life from the deranged King Saul. David is in the presence of the Philistines of Gath and learns that they are n...

This week in our Wednesday night IMAGE meeting we wrapped up our series on the End Times focusing especially on the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22. In this section God shows a return to the Garden of Eden... but better, which gives us great hope for our eternal future. Here I just wanted to highlight a few things that stood out to me from our time. 1) In 21:3 we see that God will dwell with man. His presence will be manifested with us for all time. Even in the perfect garden, Gen 3:8-9 seems to indicate that God's manifest presence came and went from Adam and Eve, not that He was ever not present, but in some way less noticeably so. Our hope in the eternal home we will one day posses is that God's presence will always dwell there never to leave in any way. 2) 21:4 & 22:3 show that not only will the curse due to sin and its painful results be removed forever, but, unlike the Garden of Eden where sin happened, there will never be any chance for sin and its painful con...

I pray for your heart to be filled with the confidence that… …God loves you with His everlasting love (Jer.31:3) … Jesus loves you just as the Father loves Him (Jn.15:1-11) …God’s mercy towards you is new again today (Lam. 3:22) …God’s compassion towards you will never fail (Lam. 3:22) …God has given you His righteousness freely as a gift (Rom. 3:21-28) …God promises never to leave you or forsake you (Heb.13:5; Ps.94:14) …God has given you all of his promises in Christ Jesus (2Cor.1:20) …God promises to protect you with His peace (Phil.4:7) …God promises that He, [the God of peace] will be with you (Phil.4:9) …God has promises that He will supply all your needs (Phil.4:19) …God will be your room-mate (Is. 57:15) …You will mostly be unaware of the ways that your fruit is manifested (Mt. 25:34-40) …God sovereignly placed you in the Body of Christ (Eph.1:3-6) …God has uniquely equipped you to serve the Body (Eph.4:12-16 …t...