Quotes of the month
If Paul saw the church in America today, we’d be getting a letter.
Father Cedric Pisegna
Football, beer, and above all gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.
George Orwell, 1984
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas Jefferson
Trust in God, but tie up your camel.
A more modern version of this quote is: Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.
Have faith in God’s providence over your life, absolutely, but don’t be irresponsible. You still need to do your part.
Anonymous
My Times Are in Your Hand
By Alistair Begg
But I trust in you, O Lord; I say “You are my God.” My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors. Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love.
Psalm 31:14-16
Most of us are a mixture of emotions and experiences. The good, the bad, and the ugly wash over us regularly. The key issue is what we do with these feelings and experiences. How does being a believer shape the way in which we view our world? “My times are in your hand” is a six-word affirmation to remind Christians that despite disasters and difficulties, we are under the care of Almighty God. In the opening verses of Psalm 31, it is apparent that David is in anguish. As we read on, we seem to find him in a position of assurance just a few verses later, only for him to return immediately to a state of distress. This cycle of pain and joy is not an unusual experience for the Christian pilgrim. In fact, the recurrence of disappointment and discomfort is fairly common along the path of faith. In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells the story of looking forward to her first railway journey. Although her trip was not for many weeks, she would regularly go to her father and ask him if he had the tickets. He would tell her over and over that he did. She realized that her problem was a lack of trust in her dad; she did not believe he would take care of everything. She was worrying that he would lose her ticket and that somehow she would be without it on the day she was to travel. In that lesson, she learned that God gives us the ticket on the day we make the journey and not before. He, of course, is much better at keeping it safe than we are. In our own pilgrimages through heartache, disappointment, the loss of loved ones, and personal failures, we can learn that this is indeed true. Therefore, we must trust Him. On the day we make the journey from time to eternity, if we know Christ, we know he will give us the ticket. If that day is today, then the ticket is on the way. If not, then what is the use in lying awake and letting our emotions control us and our worries crowd in on us? We are not at the mercy of arbitrary, impersonal forces; we are in the hand of our loving God. He says to us, Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden. Come to Me with all your burdens, fears, panics, anxieties, and heartaches. Take My yoke upon you. Live underneath My loving rule, because My yoke is easy and My burden is light, and you will find rest for your souls, forever. (see Matthew 11:28-30)
This is your security. Your times - short or long, rich or poor, sad or happy – are in His hand. He will give you good works to do each day, and then on your last day, He will bring you safely through to the place where your days are infinitely long, unimaginably rich, and unutterably happy.
Questions about The Sermon on the Mount
by Frank Paul
The Sermon on the Mount is a section of the Bible that even casual Christians tend to be
familiar with; and most of us are even more familiar with what has been labeled as “The Beatitudes,” found in the beginning of Matthew, Chapter 5; however, the Sermon on the Mount continues for another two chapters, and there are many words of Jesus that some might find confusing or troubling. This month let’s cover what Jesus said in Matthew 5:13.
Directly after Jesus finishes his Beatitudes portion of His Sermon, he tells His followers, “Ye are the salt of the earth.” Okay. Well, I guess that’s a good thing, right? Salt is good; but wait a minute, too much salt is bad for you. I’m unclear what Jesus meant. Let’s do some digging.
Here is the whole verse from Matthew, Chapter 5:13, to put it in context. By the way, I’m using the King James Version of the Bible. “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
Remember how in the last two month’s newsletters we had to travel back to 1st Century Galilean times when Jesus used “meek” and we realized it didn’t mean what we in 2024 thought it meant, and “turn the other cheek” didn’t mean how we think of it today; well, the same may be said with “salt.”
Apparently way back then, salt was a pretty big deal. As a matter of fact, sometimes people actually used salt as money to pay for goods or supplies. Roman soldiers were even paid in salt when they were on the march and all the currency was locked up back in Rome. An interesting side note here is that when a Roman soldier did not perform his duties up to expected standards, his commanding officers would say “He’s not worth his salt,” which we in my generation still use that expression today.
Salt was used as a preservative to keep food from spoiling. Salt was used to enhance the flavor of food.
Pastor Greg Laurie said, “Just as salt enhances flavor, believers are called to influence, improve, and make the world better. Our speech should be seasoned with grace, reflecting Christ’s love and the Holy Spirit within us. Losing our ‘saltiness’ means losing our usefulness and impact. Being the salt of the earth means making a noticeable difference, just as salt enhances food.”
Paul in Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”
Emmet Fox in his book Sermon on the Mount, page 48 - 49, describes Jesus’ words as, “He is addressing those who understand the meaning of the Allness of God or Good, and the powerlessness of evil in the face of Truth. Such people he describes as being the salt of the earth. If you understand and accept the teaching of Jesus, and make them a part of your daily life, then you are worthy to be called “the salt of the earth.”
Well, who knew salt had such an interesting and deep 1st century meaning, and that meaning can still apply to us today.
That was a worthwhile dig into the past. Hope you all enjoyed it and now have a better understanding of Jesus’s words.
Created for a Purpose
by Pastor James Merritt
Everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made him.
Isaiah 43:7
What on earth are you here for? Isn’t that really life’s great question? All of our dreams, plans, goals, desires, pursuits – everything we long for or acquire, even our relationships – all that we are is in pursuit of the answer to the one question that really matters. What are we all about?
God created us. The Bible tells us in Genesis the account of creation. We were formed in His image and placed in His world and given charge over His created things. Man tended the garden alone and God made a helpmate for him. And mankind grew exponentially until
now there are seven billion of us, and nearly all still in search of the answer to end all answers. Why?
The Bible tells us the answer in Isaiah 43. We were created for God’s glory. It pleased Him to create us, and we are a reflection of Him. Because we were created for God’s glory, we are also to live for God’s glory. We are here to know Him and to please Him and to praise Him. The God who made us is also the God that gives our lives meaning.
The greatest thing we can do in life is to know God…to surrender to God and to understand that sin displeases God, but that He gives us a way through Christ to restore our relationship with Him and to spend eternity in heaven with Him. Did you ever think that heaven is only heaven because God is there? Our eternity is to be spent in His presence. But it will not be boring! How could it be when God is eternally vast and glorious and loving and kind and knowable? A billion years on we will not fully know God, and we will continually discover and understand more about Him but never know Him in every way that we can know Him.
We are created for a purpose. To know God and to make God known. We exist to please God through a relationship with Him as we reflect Him in our hearts, minds, and actions by living for Him daily.
God, thank You for making me. Thank you for providing a way through Jesus for me to know You. I pray that as I spend my time with You each day, You will help me to know You more fully all the time. I also pray You will show me how I can fulfill Your plans for me on earth as I live for You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Editor’s note: remember, there are several prayers and prayer card posts on our website, with a further explanation of the prayer to hopefully better understand it. If you want to see more of them, go to the website and navigate to Prayer Cards. The following is from prayer card post 7)
Though I created you without your help, I will not save you without it.
Catherine of Siena
God did create us without our help. He created everything without our help. But He did give us, and only us out of all of His creations, free will. We must use our gift of free will to choose wisely; to make the proper choices in this life.
If we completely neglect our Lord and Creator in our time here and now, how can we possibly expect to return to Him when our time is over?
He helped us to even exist; now we must also help ourselves to be saved by following His commandments
Prayer card post 3
Lord, take my lips and speak through them; take my mind and think through it; take my heart and set it on fire. Amen
W.H.H. Aitken
When you truly let the Lord into your life and you earnestly want to be a better Christian, let the Lord help you out. Ask Him to watch over your words today. Pray to Him to give you a clean mind with no warped, unkind, or filthy thoughts. Have Him set your heart on fire for Him and His love that He has for you and for all His children. Relinquish yourself to Him in all ways and then relax. God can take care of whatever comes your way.
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