Pastor Chuck’s Blog

8-16-2023

Let The Weak Say…..

There is a song playing on Christian radio right now that I really like. The title is, “You’ve Already Won” and it’s sung by Shane and Shane. I love the chorus of the song:

And I’m fighting a battle
You’ve already won
No matter what comes my way
I will overcome
Don’t know what you’re doing
But I know what you’ve done
And I’m fighting a battle
You’ve already won

What’s interesting, however, is that the average person talks to themselves thousands of times a day, and according to one study, much of what they hear from themselves is negative. Maybe that’s you, too……saying things like: “Why can’t you do anything right? You’ll never succeed. You’ll never change. You don’t have a chance.”

These words reinforce what we believe about ourselves, and they influence the actions we take. The sad thing is, we find it far too easy to believe in the power of our weakness, and far too difficult to believe in the power of the One who promises to transform us into His likeness.

God spoke through Joel this simple phrase: “Let the weak say ‘I am strong.'” (Joel 3:10) He was referring to the day of battle, guaranteeing for His people a victory.

Every day is the day of battle for followers of Christ. We come face-to-face with temptation, discouragement, apathy, and failure — day in, day out. And in the midst of battle, God reminds us that we’re fighting a battle that He’s already won.

We haven’t sung it in awhile, but there’s a short chorus we’ve sung in the past that says:

Victory, victory shall be mine!
Victory, victory shall be mine!
If I hold my peace and let the Lord fight my battle,
Victory, victory shall be mine!

So let the weak say I am strong for, just as David proclaimed when facing Goliath, “The battle is the Lord’s.”

8-9-2023

You and I will face many ups and downs in life. Just like the earth experiences spring, summer, fall, and winter, we experience different seasons in our lives. There will be times of significant growth and excitement…..and there will be dry spells (and everything in between). And when the dry spells come it’s easy to get discouraged and, in some cases, want to give up.

The key to enduring these dry spells is to respond in faith rather than fear. If you’re going through a dry spell right now, remember these truths. If you’re in an easier season, store these truths away because one day you will need them.

1. Feelings are unreliable. The Bible warns us not to trust our perceptions (Proverbs 3:5). Feelings come from many sources—chemical imbalances, food you’ve eaten, movies you’ve seen, and so on. We don’t need to listen to everything we think or believe everything we feel. Moods and emotions often lie to us, so we shouldn’t let them control our actions.

2. Life has both good and bad times. Ecclesiastes 3:1-6 reminds us that life is a series of opposite actions. There is a time for everything under heaven—time to plant and uproot, build up and tear down. Life goes through periods of expansion and pruning. We need these tough seasons to help us to grow.

3. Dry seasons help build our character. God uses dry seasons to teach us to live by faith when feelings are gone. He wants to build perseverance and maturity in us.

Dry seasons can feel like desert seasons—and deserts are a time for testing. Ask the children of Israel. The 40-year journey they took in the desert could have been a couple of weeks. But God wanted to test them and build their character.

4. Remember, you’re serving God, not people. God is our ultimate boss. We serve others because we’re serving Him. Our motivation—our “why”—determines how we do what we do. Paul faced all kinds of suffering for Christ. He was beaten and jailed, experienced starvation and thirst, and faced many sleepless nights (see 2 Corinthians 11:24-29). But he knew who he was serving, and that helped him endure all those troubles. Paul lived for an audience of one – an excellent reminder for us.

5. Your life makes an eternal difference. Many times you can’t see the impact you’re having on others. But God is watching the overall story of history. He sees an eternity we can’t.

6. You’ll have eternal reward. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 that eternal rewards far outweighed the temporary pain he was experiencing. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (NIV).

Our pain is short-lived too. No matter what you face today, it is minuscule compared to the rewards of eternity.

7. You’ll spend forever with Jesus. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Keep your eyes on the goal. One day, you’ll celebrate forever with Jesus. You won’t be thinking about the problems you’re enduring right now. You’ll be with Jesus, and that will be all that matters.

7-26-2023

No Worries……

Connie Mack will always be remembered as one of the greatest personalities in baseball. After coaching the Philadelphia A’s for 50 years, he retired in 1950 at the age of 87 as the winningest manager in history. Books could be written, and probably already have been, on the management techniques of Connie Mack. Leaders have a lot to learn from his example.

One management technique: he refused to worry.

Early in his career, when he realized how worry was threatening to destroy his ability to lead – especially worries over past defeats – he forced himself to get so busy preparing to win today’s game that he didn’t have time to worry about yesterday’s losses. He summed up it by saying, “You can’t grind grain with water that has already gone down the creek.” This colloquialism is probably lost on most of us, but it is Mack’s way of saying what Paul said …

But I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. (Philippians 3:13-14)

It works.

The act of preparing today keeps your mind off yesterday’s regrets and away from tomorrow’s uncertainties.

So give your attention to what is really pressing this day … and press on.

6-22-2023

You’ve heard me say this many times: God gave us 2 ears and one mouth. We should use them proportionately.

Bernard Baruch said, “Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” This is true not only in the workplace, it’s true in the spiritual life, too.

Many think that prayer consists only of talking to God, but there is more to it. The most transformational part of prayer is the time spent in silence, listening. In silence, we learn. As someone once said, “Silence is not empty. It’s full of answers.”

Maybe this is why King David said. “My soul waits in silence for God only; From Him is my salvation.” (Psalm 62:1 NASB)

The first step to take when you get in God’s presence is be still.

The second step is to be still some more.

Then you begin to listen. Then you begin to hear from Him. And then you begin to experience His powerful presence.

The best thing? You can take it with you all day.

6-14-2023

In the mid-19th century, fire trucks were typically pulled by horses. At the fire house, the horses were kept downstairs, while the firemen slept and ate upstairs.

• This led to a problem: When the horses could smell food being prepared, they wanted some. So they would frequently climb the stairs to see for themselves what’s on the stove.

• This led to a solution: Fire stations began to install spiral staircases, too narrow for a horse to navigate. This kept the horses safely on the lower level.

• This led to a problem: A dozen firemen trying to race down a spiral staircase at 3:00 in the morning was neither safe nor quick.

• This led to a solution: Chicago-based fire fighter Captain David Kenyon is credited with the invention of the fire pole: Safer, faster, more efficient.

Following Chicago’s lead, the Boston Fire Department soon installed a fire pole. It wasn’t long before other departments throughout the land heard about this innovation, and began using them, too. You could say the idea spread like … I don’t know … what would be a good analogy here?

Here’s my point.

Problems rarely come with a one-step-and-this-settles-it-forever solution. The best solution to one problem will often present corresponding challenges in another area. So what do you do? Abandon a good “first-step” idea? Of course not. You ask God for His help.

Psalm 91:15: He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;

The end result for fire stations across the nation is that the fire pole is a much faster method of getting to the lower level — faster than even a traditional set of steps. And when you’re on your way to a fire, every second counts.

Facing problems day-in and day-out can be tedious, it’s true. However, solving them one-by-one makes everything better for everyone.