The Weight of the World
Coming to the church today I was treated to the sight of all the kids and their families headed to the elementary school for their first day. Almost without fail, the kids I saw had smiles on their faces. Also almost uniformly, their parents did not.
Why is that?
Some of it could be worry about how the child will do scholastically this year. Then too, there's the social aspect.
For some though, I think the weight of the world began at 7 lbs. 7 ounces.
When a child comes into your life, most people with any clue at all can grasp the enormous responsibility it brings. Tie that to your own "sack of rocks" experiences and boy, you're gonna carry that weight, carry that weight a long time. (Random boomer Beatle reference) :)
So you project forward all the possible dire scenarios even as the gap closes between the outside world and the schoolhouse door.
Someone would like a word with you.
Mark 11:24 (Msg)
That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything.
Just as tightly as you gripped that little one before letting them head off into the classroom, God wants to hold onto you. But He wants to hear your fears, your worries - everything. And as you do that, walk forward in faith. You'll wind up in God's arms.
So pray. Pray over, around and through every action. Pray silently - out loud. Pray when you are alone - with others.
And each morning, gather in a circle, hold your child's hands, and pray that God would give Him everything he or she needs for a great day. You'll be intimately connected to our Father God.
Once you are there, the weight of the world won't be any problem at all.
Oh and grown-ups - it works for jobs too. :)
Grace!
David
This devotional is written by David Wilson, pastor of New Hope Baptist church in Valparaiso, FL. If you find you have received this via a forward and would like to receive it regularly, or find you no longer wish to receive it, drop me an email at dwilsonfl@earthlink.net and I'll make the change to the list. If you'd like to know more about New Hope, visit our website at www.newhopevalp.org . May God bless you.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
When One Person Cares
All the pieces for a disastrous fourth grade experience were there for me.
My appearance - only a Mother could love (since she pretty much decided how I'd look) that geeky boy with glasses, wierd wavy hair and hand me down clothes.
My point of origin - we were new in the community, just having moved out from the city into a rural area.
My timing - it's better to be new when everyone else is too. We didn't move until a month into the 4th grade. So everyone had picked their friends and the new had worn off everyone - except me.
My personality - didn't have one. I did though have horrible allergies that would cause me to break out into hives that made my skin look like a 3-D map of the world, swell my lip up until it turned inside out, and cause my eyes to close.
So if you were looking for someone to pick on, I was your huckleberry.
All those factors were crushed by one person's care. My home room teacher, Mrs. Pyles cared about me.
Somehow, without ever raising her voice, or making me a teacher's pet, she helped me find a place there, helped me when my allergies took hold, just helped me. She was only one person. But she was more than enough.
Later, much later, I was stuck in a dead end job, having thrown away my chance to get a college degree. I had bills, a young family, and a crushing need to do better. But it had been so long since I was in high school, I knew there was no way I could pass Math.
That was before I met Hazel Struby. She was a math teacher who would not allow me to fail. Shoot - she wouldn't allow me to make a B.
On the eve of back to school frenzy across the street at Valparaiso Elementary tomorrow, I think about those teachers God placed in my life at just the right time and just the right place to do for me what no one else could have done.
Friend, you'll never convince me God doesn't care.
Thing is, He works best through people.
You might be the one He's chosen for someone.
Or someone you know might have been placed within your circle of people just for you.
I'll never be able to repay everyone who has helped me.
But I know Who to thank. When I look back, I feel like this:
2 Samuel 22:24 (Msg)
I feel put back together,
and I'm watching my step.
God rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.
Do this for me today - open the book of your heart to God's eyes. Maybe there's a secret hurt, an unfulfilled longing that you've suffered for too long. If you give it to your loving Father, He'll take the fragments of your life story and rewrite it into His masterpiece.
When one person cares, it makes a difference. When that person is God, He makes all the difference - forever.
Grace!
David
This devotional is written by David Wilson, pastor of New Hope Baptist church in Valparaiso, FL. If you find you have received this via a forward and would like to receive it regularly, or find you no longer wish to receive it, drop me an email at dwilsonfl@earthlink.net and I'll make the change to the list. If you'd like to know more about New Hope, visit our website at www.newhopevalp.org . May God bless you.
All the pieces for a disastrous fourth grade experience were there for me.
My appearance - only a Mother could love (since she pretty much decided how I'd look) that geeky boy with glasses, wierd wavy hair and hand me down clothes.
My point of origin - we were new in the community, just having moved out from the city into a rural area.
My timing - it's better to be new when everyone else is too. We didn't move until a month into the 4th grade. So everyone had picked their friends and the new had worn off everyone - except me.
My personality - didn't have one. I did though have horrible allergies that would cause me to break out into hives that made my skin look like a 3-D map of the world, swell my lip up until it turned inside out, and cause my eyes to close.
So if you were looking for someone to pick on, I was your huckleberry.
All those factors were crushed by one person's care. My home room teacher, Mrs. Pyles cared about me.
Somehow, without ever raising her voice, or making me a teacher's pet, she helped me find a place there, helped me when my allergies took hold, just helped me. She was only one person. But she was more than enough.
Later, much later, I was stuck in a dead end job, having thrown away my chance to get a college degree. I had bills, a young family, and a crushing need to do better. But it had been so long since I was in high school, I knew there was no way I could pass Math.
That was before I met Hazel Struby. She was a math teacher who would not allow me to fail. Shoot - she wouldn't allow me to make a B.
On the eve of back to school frenzy across the street at Valparaiso Elementary tomorrow, I think about those teachers God placed in my life at just the right time and just the right place to do for me what no one else could have done.
Friend, you'll never convince me God doesn't care.
Thing is, He works best through people.
You might be the one He's chosen for someone.
Or someone you know might have been placed within your circle of people just for you.
I'll never be able to repay everyone who has helped me.
But I know Who to thank. When I look back, I feel like this:
2 Samuel 22:24 (Msg)
I feel put back together,
and I'm watching my step.
God rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.
Do this for me today - open the book of your heart to God's eyes. Maybe there's a secret hurt, an unfulfilled longing that you've suffered for too long. If you give it to your loving Father, He'll take the fragments of your life story and rewrite it into His masterpiece.
When one person cares, it makes a difference. When that person is God, He makes all the difference - forever.
Grace!
David
This devotional is written by David Wilson, pastor of New Hope Baptist church in Valparaiso, FL. If you find you have received this via a forward and would like to receive it regularly, or find you no longer wish to receive it, drop me an email at dwilsonfl@earthlink.net and I'll make the change to the list. If you'd like to know more about New Hope, visit our website at www.newhopevalp.org . May God bless you.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
It Matters, Because You Matter
It was a cold December afternoon many years ago, when a group of parents stood in the lobby of a nursery school waiting to pick up their children after the last pre-Christmas session. As the kids ran from their lockers, each one carried in his hands a surprise wrapped in bright Christmas paper - a gift for their parents each child in the class had spent weeks crafting with their own hands .
One small boy was so excited he could hardly slow down. He opened the locker, reached in and then was trying to run, put on his coat, and wave to his parents all at the same time. So he lost his balance, slipped and fell. The surprise flew from his grasp and before anyone could move, landed on the tile floor with an obvious ceramic crash.
The little boy just stared in shock. He raced over to the package and shook it, and could hear the pieces clash against each other. Tears began to flow, then a whimper, and finally he cried out loud in big sobs, each followed by a gasp for air.
His father, not really knowing what to do, but thinking he could lessen the hurt, patted his son's head and murmured "It's okay. It really doesn't matter, son. It doesn't matter at all."
But the child's mother rushed over, dropped to her knees on the floor, swept the boy into her arms and said "I know it was beautiful. I am so sorry." And she wept with her son.
Mom was a lot more in tune with the way God works.
You may think no one cares.
Someone may have told you that what you are going through shouldn't bother you so much. After all, it happens to people all the time.
Friend, it matters to God. Because you matter. The writer of Proverbs lets us know God is aware.
Psalm 56:8 (Msg)
You've kept track of my every toss and turn
through the sleepless nights,
Each tear entered in your ledger,
each ache written in your book.
Not only is He aware, but He's taking the things that hurt, that wound, and not just patting us on the head and telling us that "Life's tough, you'll get over it", but He's entering into our pain, and working it all together for good. He won't waste one experience, or forget one tear.
Wherever you are today and whatever faces you - call on God. Because you matter.
Grace!
David
This devotional is written by David Wilson, pastor of New Hope Baptist church in Valparaiso, FL. If you find you have received this via a forward and would like to receive it regularly, or find you no longer wish to receive it, drop me an email at dwilsonfl@earthlink.net and I'll make the change to the list. If you'd like to know more about New Hope, visit our website at www.newhopevalp.org . May God bless you.
It was a cold December afternoon many years ago, when a group of parents stood in the lobby of a nursery school waiting to pick up their children after the last pre-Christmas session. As the kids ran from their lockers, each one carried in his hands a surprise wrapped in bright Christmas paper - a gift for their parents each child in the class had spent weeks crafting with their own hands .
One small boy was so excited he could hardly slow down. He opened the locker, reached in and then was trying to run, put on his coat, and wave to his parents all at the same time. So he lost his balance, slipped and fell. The surprise flew from his grasp and before anyone could move, landed on the tile floor with an obvious ceramic crash.
The little boy just stared in shock. He raced over to the package and shook it, and could hear the pieces clash against each other. Tears began to flow, then a whimper, and finally he cried out loud in big sobs, each followed by a gasp for air.
His father, not really knowing what to do, but thinking he could lessen the hurt, patted his son's head and murmured "It's okay. It really doesn't matter, son. It doesn't matter at all."
But the child's mother rushed over, dropped to her knees on the floor, swept the boy into her arms and said "I know it was beautiful. I am so sorry." And she wept with her son.
Mom was a lot more in tune with the way God works.
You may think no one cares.
Someone may have told you that what you are going through shouldn't bother you so much. After all, it happens to people all the time.
Friend, it matters to God. Because you matter. The writer of Proverbs lets us know God is aware.
Psalm 56:8 (Msg)
You've kept track of my every toss and turn
through the sleepless nights,
Each tear entered in your ledger,
each ache written in your book.
Not only is He aware, but He's taking the things that hurt, that wound, and not just patting us on the head and telling us that "Life's tough, you'll get over it", but He's entering into our pain, and working it all together for good. He won't waste one experience, or forget one tear.
Wherever you are today and whatever faces you - call on God. Because you matter.
Grace!
David
This devotional is written by David Wilson, pastor of New Hope Baptist church in Valparaiso, FL. If you find you have received this via a forward and would like to receive it regularly, or find you no longer wish to receive it, drop me an email at dwilsonfl@earthlink.net and I'll make the change to the list. If you'd like to know more about New Hope, visit our website at www.newhopevalp.org . May God bless you.
Monday, August 02, 2004
Any Way You Can
It's a quiet Sunday afternoon in Valparaiso. Many are taking advantage of the afternoon to practice what one preacher called "the third Baptist ordinance" - the Sunday afternoon nap. This morning I think I helped spread that practice into the morning service.
Not every sermon hits a home run. When a pastor leaves his study, doing everything he knows to do - praying for guidance, seeking God's wisdom, using their training and their skill - he hopes that God will take what will be delivered and make it an event in heaven.
An event? Well really, a party.
Luke 15:10 (Msg)
Count on it—that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God."
That's why we preach.
But you never really know what will happen, and many times you don't actually know what happened once you finish. Except for the snores.
It's been almost three years ago now, that I was involved in a revival at Orianna Baptist in Middle Georgia. The pastor there and I went visiting people during the afternoons before the evening services. He had a real way with those people, as honest and as sincere a desire to see them saved as I have ever seen. I wondered after the first stop, "What in the world does he need with me?"
We pulled up near a modest home, walked around back and onto a deck. Welcomed into that home, I was introduced to an elderly man named Calvin Logan. The pastor had spent a lot of time with him over the last year, but Calvin had never decided to become a disciple of Jesus. His family was worried because Calvin had a lot of health problems, and they were afraid his time might come before he knew God. So we talked for a while, and I tried to help him across the bridge from unbelief to grace. Though he was receptive to a point, we started out the door after a few minutes a little down, a little discouraged. I think both of us felt we had missed a chance.
Before we had cleared the corner of the house a voice called out to the pastor, "Brother Rigdill, he wants to talk to you and the preacher again." We flew up the steps.
In a moment, Calvin was a child of God. He came to the revival that night and made his decision public. For the rest of his life he followed through on the commitment he made that day.
Calvin Logan went home this past week.
Friends, anytime you have a chance to tell someone about the love of Jesus - do it. Any way you can make people understand just how free a gift it is - do it.
There will be times when you'll get to see God at work, and times when you won't. But don't despair - just share His love any way you can, for as long as you can.
On a lazy afternoon, knowing you were used by God makes a big difference.
Any other time too. :)
Grace!
David
This devotional is written by David Wilson, pastor of New Hope Baptist church in Valparaiso, FL. If you find you have received this via a forward and would like to receive it regularly, or find you no longer wish to receive it, drop me an email at dwilsonfl@earthlink.net and I'll make the change to the list. If you'd like to know more about New Hope, visit our website at www.newhopevalp.org . May God bless you.
It's a quiet Sunday afternoon in Valparaiso. Many are taking advantage of the afternoon to practice what one preacher called "the third Baptist ordinance" - the Sunday afternoon nap. This morning I think I helped spread that practice into the morning service.
Not every sermon hits a home run. When a pastor leaves his study, doing everything he knows to do - praying for guidance, seeking God's wisdom, using their training and their skill - he hopes that God will take what will be delivered and make it an event in heaven.
An event? Well really, a party.
Luke 15:10 (Msg)
Count on it—that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God."
That's why we preach.
But you never really know what will happen, and many times you don't actually know what happened once you finish. Except for the snores.
It's been almost three years ago now, that I was involved in a revival at Orianna Baptist in Middle Georgia. The pastor there and I went visiting people during the afternoons before the evening services. He had a real way with those people, as honest and as sincere a desire to see them saved as I have ever seen. I wondered after the first stop, "What in the world does he need with me?"
We pulled up near a modest home, walked around back and onto a deck. Welcomed into that home, I was introduced to an elderly man named Calvin Logan. The pastor had spent a lot of time with him over the last year, but Calvin had never decided to become a disciple of Jesus. His family was worried because Calvin had a lot of health problems, and they were afraid his time might come before he knew God. So we talked for a while, and I tried to help him across the bridge from unbelief to grace. Though he was receptive to a point, we started out the door after a few minutes a little down, a little discouraged. I think both of us felt we had missed a chance.
Before we had cleared the corner of the house a voice called out to the pastor, "Brother Rigdill, he wants to talk to you and the preacher again." We flew up the steps.
In a moment, Calvin was a child of God. He came to the revival that night and made his decision public. For the rest of his life he followed through on the commitment he made that day.
Calvin Logan went home this past week.
Friends, anytime you have a chance to tell someone about the love of Jesus - do it. Any way you can make people understand just how free a gift it is - do it.
There will be times when you'll get to see God at work, and times when you won't. But don't despair - just share His love any way you can, for as long as you can.
On a lazy afternoon, knowing you were used by God makes a big difference.
Any other time too. :)
Grace!
David
This devotional is written by David Wilson, pastor of New Hope Baptist church in Valparaiso, FL. If you find you have received this via a forward and would like to receive it regularly, or find you no longer wish to receive it, drop me an email at dwilsonfl@earthlink.net and I'll make the change to the list. If you'd like to know more about New Hope, visit our website at www.newhopevalp.org . May God bless you.
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