I’m forever grateful

Psalm 100:4 (NLT)

Enter his gates with thanksgiving;  go into his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him and praise his name.

This past Thursday we celebrated  one of my favorite holidays — Thanksgiving!

I hope you took time to thank our loving God for His blessings to us at this time.

Þ A great church in which to worship Him

Þ God’s blessings on America

Þ Freedom to worship

Þ Family and friends

We need to be in prayer for our President and Vice-President Elect  and for all the newly elected federal, state and local leaders.

Let’s begin today to be thankful and enter His gates with praise.   

We serve an awesome God who answers our prayers, and if we’ll humble ourselves, He’ll heal our nation.

Love ya,  Pastor Phil      

Growing up in the balmy Autumn weather of central Florida, there were many things we never got to experience. Not once did our schools close down for snow or ice. Hooded parkas and mittens were things we barely knew about. And If we ever actually wore a sweater or light jacket to the bus stop it was hanging on a coat hook before noon.  But even in the South things can change. One year, my older sister and I had helped Dad bring in a supply of wood for the Daisy pot-belly stove that was our sole source of heat. The fact that we had to get wood must have meant it was cold. But in the drafty old farm house we called home, anything below 70 degrees meant extra blankets on the bed and a fire in that old stove.

I don’t remember who added the extra wood. Likely it was one of us children who got carried away with the pine knots we had loaded into my little red wagon and stacked carefully in the wood box. Daddy knew better. 

Soon, the sides of the chubby little stove were cherry red as the pitch in the wood made it burn fiercely.  Daddy dutifully dampered it down and used our carelessness as a teaching moment.  As he remonstrated with us, no one noticed our toddler niece getting close to the stove until she tripped and fell onto the blistering hot stove. Her tiny arm bore the brunt of the impact and came away with the word, “Daisy” branded into the tender flesh of her forearm.

I wouldn’t characterize us as remarkably religious people. We were just a family who loved each other and knew that if it mattered to us…God cared. Instinctively, Mother and others prayed even as old home remedies were hastily applied. It has been so long.  I do not remember what those remedies might have been. I just recall vividly the relief when a few months later someone noticed how quickly the “Daisy” faded from her arm as the terrible pain vanished from her mind.

As we approach Thanksgiving let us remember things like this from our own past when God’s amazing Grace was applied in some marvelous way in our lives.

Lovingly,

Richard Orrell, Pastor

IF MY PEOPLE

2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT

“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.”

God’s people prayed.   If we believe Scripture, He answered our prayers, the elections are over.  Praise the Lord we had a peaceful    election cycle.   NOW, let’s trust the last of His promise, that He will now RESTORE OUR LAND.

Democrats, Independents, Republicans:  Now let’s all unite and pray for our newly elected leadership and pray that God will direct our nation’s path.   As we’ve said many times, GOD IS IN CONTROL,   HE has our future in His hands.

“God is good, all the time, He’s good ALL the time.”    Thank you Jesus for your care.

Love ya,  Pastor Phil      

Reading the book of Ruth in the Bible is a refreshing experience. It is short enough to be easily read in one sitting and the content is heartwarming. Many applications for our modern day lives can be made of the timeless truth found in these few short pages. One of my favorites is simply the loyalty between Naomi and Ruth. There were others who made the choice to go with what seemed more logical. But even when her own sister turned back, Ruth plodded relentlessly after her mother in law.  Bereft of her husband and childless in a society that looked down on the married woman with no offspring, Ruth allowed her love and loyalty for Naomi to propel her into an uncertain future that unbeknownst to her would include her in the ancestry of Messiah.

How amazing that God reached into the life of a refugee Gentile, Jewish by choice and by loyalty, to find someone to cooperate with His plan to bless the entire world with a Savior! Did she have any comprehension of all God had planned? Not in a million years. All she had was her ironclad declaration of intent: "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God."

May the Lord bring us to a similar place in our commitments. May friendship and loyalty once again draw us away from the fickleness promoted by the self centered entertainment industry.

May we be courageous enough to stand by those we love even though we may disapprove of their behavior. May we faithfully exert the influence God has given us to change them (and us!) for the better. Remember; God placed you in their lives for a reason.

His purpose may not be readily seen nor easily grasped. But given time and proximity His will is made clear. If we remove ourselves from someone's life the influence God intended for us to exert becomes difficult if not impossible.

Lovingly,

Richard Orrell, Lead Pastor