4/24/13

From Gary... Sunshine


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Yesterday, my wife and I went to the hospital to see her sister Dorothy.  She is in rehabilitation, trying to recover from a massive stroke.  I must say, the time spent with her was a real eye-opener.  Her determination to return to "normal life" coupled with the realization of what she had lost impressed me greatly!!!  She was in excellent spirits when we left there and I pray she has a speedy recovery!!!  All this made me think about the last couple of days.  Two days ago, it was cloudy and the next one was better with the help of a little red bird and the God of Heaven.  All this made me think of the things we take for granted each and every day.  Simple things, like a morning "routine" or taking the dog for a walk.  How about even more "basic" things, like being able to sit up in a chair, or feeding yourself, or even being able to see.  So, when I checked facebook this morning, I saw this NPR video  from NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory and was fascinated by it.  Imagine, being able to see how the sun shines over a three year period and at different angstrom wavelengths to boot!!!!  Simply fascinating- well, I guess I sound a bit like Mr. Spock, but who cares; it is interesting.  Consider what life would be like if you could not see, or worse yet, if you never had seen at all. And then you are given SIGHT!!!  How would you react, what would you do?  Here is one man's story...

John, Chapter 9
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.  2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 

  3
  Jesus answered, “Neither did this man sin, nor his parents; but, that the works of God might be revealed in him.   4  I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work.   5  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”   6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, anointed the blind man’s eyes with the mud,  7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he went away, washed, and came back seeing.  8 The neighbors therefore, and those who saw that he was blind before, said, “Isn’t this he who sat and begged?”  9 Others were saying, “It is he.” Still others were saying, “He looks like him.” 

He said, “I am he.”  10 They therefore were asking him, “How were your eyes opened?” 

11
  He answered, “A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and I received sight.” 

12  Then they asked him, “Where is he?” 

He said, “I don’t know.” 

  13  They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees.  14 It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.  15 Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.” 

  16  Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” There was division among them.  17 Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?” 

He said, “He is a prophet.” 

  18  The Jews therefore did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight,  19 and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 

  20  His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;  21 but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.”  22 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.  23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.” 

  24  So they called the man who was blind a second time, and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 

  25  He therefore answered, “I don’t know if he is a sinner. One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see.” 

  26  They said to him again, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 

  27  He answered them, “I told you already, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t also want to become his disciples, do you?” 

  28  They insulted him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.  29 We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we don’t know where he comes from.” 

  30  The man answered them, “How amazing! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.  31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God, and does his will, he listens to him.  32 Since the world began it has never been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of someone born blind.  33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 

  34  They answered him, “You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us?” They threw him out. 

  35  Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, 
“Do you believe in the Son of God?” 

  36  He answered, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?” 

  37  Jesus said to him, 
“You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you.” 

  38  He said, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshiped him. 

  39
  Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, that those who don’t see may see; and that those who see may become blind.” 

  40  Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 

  41 
 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains. 

I don't pretend to know why everything happens to us. I do know that God has transformed many terrible things in my life into blessings and that is enough for me!!!  I don't need to know everything; just enough to have faith in God and do what I should to please him.  When I do this, I can relate to the difficult things in life; the problems, the struggles, the disappointments with confidence because God loves me.  However, I am not the center of the universe; others have problems, just like I do.  The blind man in the above passage from John, my sister-in-law and countless others.  What really matters in life is to seek out whatever goodness in you can find in life and seek God.  Sooner or later tragedy besets us all and ultimately ends in our demise.  Wouldn't it be nice if there if there was something better awaiting us after that?  Truth is - there is!!!  Begin by looking at your life; the simple things at first and then considering the more difficult as time goes by.  How do I do this, you might ask.  Well, I believe the Bible will give you the answers you seek, but you need to read it, believe it and do what it says.  Keep looking- eventually you WILL SEE WHAT I MEAN!!! One more thing- look at the sun VERY, VERY CAREFULLY!!! Eyesight is a precious thing- just like your spiritual life!!! 

ps.  I was ready to post this and I remembered a former Bible Instructor of mine- John P. Bizzell and how he loved to sing...

I remember this as being his favorite hymn

  • There is sunshine in my soul today,
      More glorious and bright
    Than glows in any earthly sky,
      For Jesus is my light.
    • O there’s sunshine, blessed sunshine,
      While the peaceful, happy moments roll;
      When Jesus shows His smiling face
        There is sunshine in my soul.
  • There is music in my soul today,
      A carol to my King;
    And Jesus, listening, can hear
      The song I cannot sing.
  • There is springtime in my soul today,
      For when the Lord is near
    The dove of peace sings in my heart,
      The flowers of grace appear.
  • There is gladness in my soul today,
      And hope, and praise, and love,
    For blessings which He gives me now,
      For joys laid up above.


  • Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/343#ixzz2RObkJQnc

    From Jim McGuiggan... Should she marry him?


    Should she marry him?

    If I read this piece later and think it sounds like some of the simplistic nonsense that we so often read in self-help books, I’ll shoot myself. Well...I’ll probably choose carefully where I put the bullet.
    Whatever else they are Karl Popper, philosophy of science expert, says humans are problem-solvers. I don’t doubt it. Good thing too. But speaking as a Christian, I’m certain that whatever we are, if we sever ourselves from God our giftedness and purposes are railroaded. But worse than that—worse by far—our gifts can no longer function to bring about what it is that we ultimately need. The keys no longer fit the locks we feverishly try, and we pass by the doors that say, "I’m open."
    The bulk of our entire problem solving work, I should think, would involve gaining knowledge. That makes sense, don’t you know. There must be knowledge!But the stockpiling of knowledge doesn’t appear to be bringing us any nearer to peace, peace within or peace with our neighbours. Even the obvious reasons for that are too many to follow right now.
    Of course, you don’t need to be told that there are tens of millions that live contentedly and seem to be quite happy without God in their lives. I believe that’s the case and I think it’s very gracious of God to continue to bless us with so much (Acts 14:16-17 and 17:25) when we have no intention of acknowledging his generosity. No one lives without God in their life, whether they acknowledge it or not. To live only for ourselves is to miss the point of the cross (2 Corinthians 4:14-15). And then there are the millions that cannot live contented—they lack food, shelter, adequate political freedom and other basics without which a contented life is nearly impossible.
    Like everything else, the quest for knowledge and the role of "problem-solver" can be over-rated and I think that is especially true in the lives of many sensitive believers who find themselves desperately trying to keep their heads above water. For whatever reasons, their lives are chaotic and they search their world over to find the solution. For some, their restless state is a chemical or hormonal or other imbalance or lack. Where that’s the case, wise and attentive doctors and medicine carefully used offer adequate control and we should thank God for them. But for a vast number, medicine only treats some of the symptoms and the underlying problem is barely—if at all—kept under control. The medicine doesn’t treat the problem!
    Their ceaseless struggle with mental and emotional stress leads these hurting people to think things that aren’t true. Some of the religious rubbish you hear from self-serving preachers that are dolled up to the nineties, makes matters worse for the fragmenting people. Their illness, they’re told, is because they won’t believe. That goes along with what thesufferers tend to think. God must be terribly disappointed with them, must be angry with them and/or must be punishing them. It’s bad enough that they're feeling this agony—loss of health is bad—but to think that you’ve lost God or that he doesn’t want you must be unbearable. And because it’s unbearable the sufferers can’t allow themselves to fully believe it. There must be an answer somewhere! This is a problem that needs to be solved! The way to solve it is to gain more knowledge about God.
    Ah, there it is: "more knowledge about God." So the answer is in knowing more verses, reciting more texts, being able to understand more complex theology? Somewhere there’s a point at which we have so much knowledge, and poof, a flash of blue smoke, and all the hurt vanishes? Don’t believe it; but don’t despise knowledge or think it useless. Not all knowing is knowing, and not all truths are of equal value though they are all equally true.
    Where it’s the case that our hurts are plainly because of our selfishness, the direction we need to go is clear even if momentarily painful. Grow up or live with the consequences!
    But for millions of people, their inner distress is so acute that they can’t take their eyes off themselves! And they’d love to be free to think of others! I have no comfort to offer those whose only wish is to serve themselves—it isn’t comfort Christ offers to such people. He looks at hosts in awful need and then at us who whine for "more" and for things we shouldn’t have and he speaks in holy strictness.
    I know no guaranteed cures for hurt in this life. I don’t know that they exist. Dear God, I don’t know a guaranteed cure for my own needs, but I’m blessed enough where I don’t hurt like so many I know personally, and so many I know in other ways. But this I know—to "know" God is to have peace with him and to trust him (not ourselves!) eases pain and steadily dissolves it.
    To trust God sets us free from having to trust ourselves!
    Kierkegaard was over the top in his theological reasoning (the roots and nature of what I think is his error don't matter right now) but this brilliant man stressed a truth that we don't sufficiently take into account. He stressed that the search for knowledge, for answers, got in the way of our trusting. In fact, it was often a mark of our lack of trust.
    Here's how it works. An utter stranger walks up to a woman and proposes marriage because, says he, "I am deeply in love with you and will love and cherish you forever." She quite sensibly says, "But, sir, I don't know you. Have a bit of sense, how can you expect me to commit myself to someone I don't know." But he persists, day after week after month. He isn't obnoxious about it, just persistent. She comes to think, "Hmmm, maybe he's the genuine article and maybe it would be a fine thing to commit to such a one. But how can I possibly trust him?" Still he comes, laying his love before her. "But, sir, you don't know me, how can you love me and how can say you will love me forever?" His reply satisfies him if not her. "I know me! I love you and will love you forever." She now thinks that maybe he's worth the effort but she wants to be sure. So like the sensible woman she is, she inquires of the local policeman in his neighbourhood. Has he ever been in trouble with the police? Does he have a criminal record of any sort? She inquires of the postman. Does he appear to be kind, gentle, someone who could be depended on? She checks with his old school-teachers. What does his history suggest? Did they ever know him to lie? She talks with his friends. Is he a patient person? Is he very demanding? What's he like if he's disappointed? She takes copious notes so that she can go over them, she might be able to find clues in there to some kind of pattern. It's all very sensible. Certainly nothing that sensible people would criticise her for. In fact, if she just up and married a perfect stranger, trusting her life to him simply because he said he loved her—they'd think she was mad. She wants to be sure and what could be wrong with that? However sensible and practical it is, every interview she conducted, every letter of enquiry she wrote, every note she took and scanned for clues demonstrated her lack of trust. However silly it would have been for her to do it, had she trusted the man completely and married him when he asked her, she never would have made all the enquiries. Her search for knowledge that would justify her committing herself to him was the proof that she didn't trust him. And her search for knowledge, believing that if she could "know," that she could be secure, what was this but placing her faith in her search, in herself, in her informants rather than in the man who said he loved her? And, as she reflects on it, she realises something else. She realises that part of her uncertainty lies in the fact that he doesn't know her. She is more than half-afraid that his love for her would be undermined if she disappointed him. If he got to know her, he might begin at disappointment, move to despising and finally to hating her. She realises she wasn’t only doubting him—she was also doubting herself! But that made her realise that she was subconsciously thinking that his relationship with her depended on how fine she was. This meant she didn’t understand the nature of his love for her. But whether she thought well or ill of herself, she wasn't trusting him. Maybe it made sense that she shouldn't! Maybe he should have to prove himself before she trusted him! Whatever. But if that’s the case, it’s clear she doesn't trust him!
    Now: Does the man she can't trust, hate her because she can't completely trust him? Well, he comes every day proposing marriage and offering his forever kind of love. And maybe he knows her better than she knows he does. And maybe that doesn’t matter either.

    ©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

    Many thanks to brother Ed Healy for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.

    From Mark Copeland... Jesus Calms The Storm


                              "THE GOSPEL OF MARK"
    
                        Jesus Calms The Storm (4:35-41)
    
    INTRODUCTION
    
    1. Following a day full of teaching activity...
       a. Jesus and His disciples got in a boat to sail across the Sea of
          Galilee - Mk 4:35-36
       b. A windstorm arose, beating waves into the boat - Mk 4:37
       c. Jesus was sleeping, but was wakened by His disciples fearing their
          lives - Mk 4:38
       d. Jesus rebuked the wind and calmed the seas - Mk 4:39
       e. He then reproached His disciples for their fear and lack of faith
          - Mk 4:40
       f. Filled with great fear, His disciples expressed their awe of Jesus
          to one another - Mk 4:41
    
    2. The account of Jesus calming the storm is well-known...
       a. Popular in many children's Bible classes
       b. The setting for the song "Master, The Tempest Is Raging"
    
    [Many sermons and lessons have been based on this amazing miracle of
    Jesus.  In this sermon, we shall touch on just a few lessons that can be
    gleaned from this event, beginning with the fact that...]
    
    I. WE ARE NOT EXEMPT FROM STORMS
    
       A. WE FACE STORMS BECAUSE WE ARE HUMANS...
          1. Being Jesus' disciples did not protect them from storms
          2. We live in a world where there are many storms, both literal
             and figurative
          3. Christians experience literal tornados, hurricanes, just like
             everyone else
          4. Christians likewise face storms such as sickness, accidents,
             disappointments, death
          5. Paul certainly experience the perils of storms and shipwrecks
             - 2Co 11:25-26
          -- Jesus does not promise exemption from the normal storms of life
    
       B. WE FACE STORMS BECAUSE WE ARE CHRISTIANS...
          1. Jesus warned that we will experience tribulation as His
             disciples - Jn 16:33
          2. Paul did, and warned his fellow disciples - 2Co 11:24-25
             Ac 14:22; 2Ti 3:12
          3. Peter wrote that we should not be surprised - 1Pe 4:12
          -- Jesus does not promise exemption from the storms of religious
             persecution
    
    [So if we find ourselves in the midst of storms, whether literal or
    figurative, whether its because we are simply humans or because we are
    Christians, do not think it strange.  Instead take heart knowing
    that...]
    
    II. JESUS HELPS US DEAL WITH STORMS
    
       A. THROUGH FAITH...
          1. During storms, we are often afraid ("we are perishing!") - Mk 4:38
          2. Jesus teaches that fear is indicative of a lack of faith - Mk 4:40
          3. To overcome fear in storms, we need to grow in faith!
             a. Faith that God will protect us if it be His will - cf. Ps 46:1-3
             b. Faith that God will deliver us to His heavenly city even if
                we die - Ps 46:4-5,10-11
          -- Jesus reveals the role of faith in the midst of storms
    
       B. THROUGH HIS WORD...
          1. Jesus' words prepare us to withstand the storms of life - Mt 7:24-27
          2. How to pray in order to be heard by God - Mt 6:5-8
          3. To lay up treasure in heaven instead of on earth - Mt 6:19-21
          4. To seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness - Mt 6:31-34
          -- Jesus shares the secrets to standing strong against the storms
             of life
    
       C. THROUGH PRAYER...
          1. Jesus is key to receiving mercy and grace to help in time of
             need - He 4:14-16; 7:25
          2. In anxious times, God offers peace to guard our hearts and
             minds in Christ Jesus through prayer - Php 4:6-7
          -- Jesus stands ready to calm our hearts and minds when facing
             storms
    
       D. THROUGH HIS SACRIFICE...
          1. The greatest "storm" all of us will face will be the Day of
             Judgment - 2Pe 3:7,10-12
          2. A day in which we will all stand before the judgment seat of
             Christ - 2Co 5:10
          3. But Christ shed His blood to spare us on that Day - Ro 5:6-10
          4. By obeying the gospel, we can have our names added to the
             Lamb's book of life and escape condemnation for our sins - cf.
             Mk 16:15-16; Ac 2:38; Re 20:11-15
          -- Jesus stands ready to save us and protect us from the "perfect
             storm" to come
    
    CONCLUSION
    
    1. Everyone will face one or more storms in his or her life...
       a. Whether literally or metaphorically
       b. Whether atheist or believer
    
    2. How shall we react when the time(s) come...?
       a. Shall we cry out like the disciples who were weak in faith ("we
          are perishing!")?
       b. Or shall we weather the storms with confident faith and calm
          repose?
    
    3. And how shall we stand on when the final storm comes...?
       a. The "perfect storm", that is, the Day of Judgment?
       b. Shall we hear Jesus say, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit
          the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"?
          - cf. Mt 25:34
       c. Or will we hear Him say, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the
          everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels"? - cf. Mt 25:41
    
    When Jesus rebuked the wind and spoke to the sea, "Peace, be still", the
    wind ceased and there was a great calm.  The disciples, with fear and
    amazement, said:
    
          "Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"
    
    The wind and the sea obeyed Jesus.  Shall we not obey Him who now has
    all authority in heaven and on earth...? - cf. Mt 28:18-20
    



    Executable Outlines, Copyright © Mark A. Copeland, 2011

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