Friday Fotos After the Rain

I am rejoicing this morning for all the beautiful rain that we got yesterday! We are seeing wonderful results here already in our Still Waters Pond.

Last evening after our weekly family pizza night, I stood on the back deck with my sweet 

daughter-in-law, listening to the frogs singing in the trees, watching the birds flitting back and forth from the trees to the bird feeders and also feeding their babies in the birdhouse...lots of happy activity to see as we chatted about life in general.

Joel 2:21

"Fear not, O land;

Be glad and rejoice,

For the Lord has done marvelous things!"

My first sighting of a Tri-Colored Heron! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricolored_heron

 Joel 2:23

"Be glad then, you children of Zion,

and rejoice in the Lord your God;

For He has given you the former rain faithfully,

And He will cause the rain to come down for you--

 The former rain,

And the latter rain in the first month."

 Not only did we see the Tri-Colored Heron for the first time at Still Waters Pond, but we also saw this Green Heron for the first time!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_heron

 It is kind of difficult to see him among the lily pads and mud, but he was very busily pecking his way along, finding perhaps some little minnows, frogs, or other water creatures to feast upon.

 It was exciting to see both of these "new species" enjoying the benefits of the rain that God sent to us.

And then, just as I was sitting down this morning to write this post, I looked out my window and saw this beautiful Great Blue Heron land in the pond, and he began wading around looking for his breakfast.  Amazing what a good rain can do to restore the ponds and provide food for the beautiful creatures that God has placed here. 

Joel 2:25-27

25.  "So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,

The crawling locust,

the consuming locust,

and the chewing locust.

26.  "You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,

and praise the name of the Lord your God,

Who has dealt wondrously with you;

And my people shall NEVER be put to SHAME."

27.  "Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel;

I am the Lord your God

And there is no other.

My people shall NEVER be put to SHAME."

I love that God repeated the words twice: "My people shall never be put to shame."  And yes, I realize that God is speaking to the people of Israel through this Old Testament prophet, but truly He is also speaking to us, His people who are redeemed through His Son, Jesus Christ, into His family.   As we see so many difficult and unpleasant and downright terrible things happening in our land, we, the people of God are often looked upon with scorn and ridicule by those who are attempting to push aside our righteous way of life and government that was originally based upon God's Word and the laws passed down to our forefathers through the Ten Commandments. We have seen people in high places and even people in our own towns and sometimes even within our own extended families trying to shame us for our stance and beliefs.  

But one word of caution here...we who stand for truth and for God, let us be careful lest we fall into the same traps and begin to shame those who are actually united with us.  Not everyone responds to these things in the same way. We each have our own "callings" in life and ways of communicating. I've noticed lately on social media a tendency to "shame" people into fighting back and approving of things that people say and post and proclaim, and then judgment proclaimed if you don't speak out in the same way as others think you should to show your allegiance and faith.  Not everyone is called to be a "prophet". Not everyone is called to stand on the soap box and preach. But we are all called to pray for our leaders, pray for each other, and to love one another.  I would refer us to Romans 12:9-21 as well as to Romans 13:1-14. I will not print it all here as it is too lengthy, but will quote a few key verses that spoke to me:

Romans 12:9

"Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good."

Romans 12:16

"Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. do not be wise in your own opinion."

Romans 12:21

"Do not be overcome by evil,

but overcome evil with good."

Romans 13:8

"Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law."

Romans 13:10

"Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."

Romans 13:11-12

11.  "And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

12.  The night is far spent, the day is at hand.

Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light."

More than ever during these turbulent times, we must learn to support one another and encourage each other in our walk of faith.  This is not the time to shame or ridicule others for not doing things exactly as we expect them to do them. 

"But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.  

For God did not appoint us to wrath, 

but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, 

we should live together with Him.

Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, 

just as you also are doing."

I Thessalonians 5:8-11

Amen.

Have a blessed and beautiful day, wherever you are!

Sermon Notes: Who Do I Love?

I have a confession to make:  I missed church yesterday due to a bout with vertigo and also taking a bit of a stumble and fall (probably more because of my own clumsiness than the vertigo, but this time I had an excuse!)....Anyway I am going to attempt to share the sermon notes with you, thanks to my hubby writing down a few notes and giving me the basic theme of the sermon.  My apologies to the Pastor if this doesn't end up sounding anything like your message...but I pray it will be the message that God wants to go forth...

The Scripture passage for the day came from John 21:15-17.  I won't quote the whole passage here, but leave it for your reading.  However, here are the highlights of those verses from Jesus' own words to Simon Peter:

15.  "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?"...

"Feed My lambs..."

16.  "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?"...

"Tend My sheep..."

17.  "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?"...

"Feed My sheep..."

In the above verses Jesus has singled Simon Peter out from the others to ask him these questions directly...possibly for a couple of reasons...this scene takes place after Christ's resurrection from the dead, and He has appeared to His disciples on the beach,

where He prepared for them an early morning breakfast of bread and fish after their night of unsuccessful fishing (until Jesus came along on the shore and told them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat...and then they had so many fish they could barely drag them in)...

Anyway...Jesus turns His attention to Simon Peter, the one who had denied Him three times on the night of His betrayal...and He asks him three times, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" Perhaps Jesus asks Peter this three times as a reminder of the three times Peter denied Him...or perhaps there is another motive in Jesus' intentions.  

You see, Peter is about to become more than just a fisherman, and more than just a follower of Jesus Christ...Peter is about to become the first minister of what will become the Body of Christ..the church...and what we are learning here is that the most important, foremost qualification for being a minister in Christ's church is to love  God.  

Jesus asks Simon Peter three times "Do you love Me?"...and then, not before, then Jesus says to him,

"Feed My lambs...Tend My sheep...Feed My sheep."

Not until Simon Peter has confessed and expressed that he loves Jesus is he given a ministry...

And so it is the same for us today...if we are to have a ministry of any kind...and this is not just for those called to become preachers...but for all of us who serve in any way in God's kingdom...the first and foremost requirement is to answer this question from Jesus, "Do you love Me?"  Because if that question is not settled in  our own hearts, then how can we truly love and minister to others?  

Our ministry to others should be based upon our love for God. When we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, then we are better prepared to love those others whom God brings into our lives.  

What did Jesus say to the young lawyer who came to Him, testing him, in Matthew 22:34-40?

37.  "Jesus said to him,

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 

with all your soul, 

and with all your mind.'

38.  "This is the first and great commandment.

39.  "And the second is like it:

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

40.  "On these two commandments hang all the 

Law and the Prophets."

Lord, help me to love YOU more...give me a thirst and hunger for You and Your Presence in my life, and then, and only then, will I be prepared to love others as You lead me and guide me. I pray this in the precious Name of Jesus, Who died for me so that I might live.  Amen.

 Please Note : I want to repeat this disclaimer here...the notes, outline, and content included here are based upon my own personal understanding of the message that was being given.  I am not attempting to completely quote or reproduce this message or any other message I've shared previously.  Just as each person reading these notes may glean insights and thoughts that seem to directly apply to one's own situation and interpretation, my own delivery of these messages is skewed by my hearing and translation of what is being said.  Some may read my notes here and wonder if they were hearing the same message as I...and I say, God speaks to each of us as He wills...there are things He is trying to get across to each individual that may be entirely different than what the person sitting next to you in the pew is needing to hear...  That is how the Holy Spirit works! He knows what we need to hear and how to apply it to our hearts.  So it is with that understanding that I present these sermon notes to you.

Sermon Notes, FUMC, Interlachen, FL, Pastor A.C. Myers, June 24, 2018

A Personal Psalm

"O Lord, You have searched me and known me.

You know my sitting down and my rising up.

you understand my thought afar off.

You comprehend my path and my lying down,

and are acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word on my tongue,

but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.

You have hedged me behind and before,

and laid Your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

It is high, I cannot attain it."

Psalm 139: 1-6

We've been reading through this Psalm in our morning devotions this week. I must say that Psalm 139 has to be one of my most favorite Psalms. Why? Because it is so personal! It tells me just how well my heavenly Father knows me.  If we read further, we realize that there is no place...not in heaven or hell, where God cannot find me or be with me. (verses 7-12). 

 And better yet, verses 13-16 tell me that God actually formed all of my inward parts...He covered me in my mother's womb...like a loving parent tenderly covers a newborn babe...to protect, comfort and give warmth. He covered me...with His love, His kindness, and His mercy.  And He skillfully created my frame in secret...in the "lowest parts of the earth."

Furthermore, God's very "eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed"...and He actually wrote about me in His book...He wrote about my days, my life...who I would become, what I would do, where I would go..."when as yet there were none of them."

When I read these words written so long ago by King David, I can't help but rejoice with him and agree when he writes in verses 17-18:

"How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!

How great is the sum of them!

If I should count them, they would be more in number 

than the sand;

When I awake, I am still with You."

Then King David speaks out his frustrations concerning the wicked people around him in verses 19-22...and I can empathize with his righteous anger as he expresses his anguish over how these "bloodthirsty men" ..."speak against You (God) wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain."  David confesses that he actually "loathes those who rise up against You..."   and he says that he hates "them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies."

I know I often feel this way when I watch the news and see all of the horrible, terrible things that are happening around the world, even in our own nation.  There is so much hatred and wickedness directed against one another...which in effect is a result of man's hatred toward God Himself.  The Bible says in I John 4:20-21~

"If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, 

he is a liar;

for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, 

how can he love God whom he has not seen?

And this commandment we have from Him:

that he who loves God must love his brother also."

And then we come to verses 23-24 in Psalm 139, and it gets personal again.  These verses cause me to turn on the searchlight into my own heart, to be sure that I am not guilty of harboring the same kinds of hatred in my own heart that I see out there in "the world"...

"Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting."

This past week we have all watched in horror the terrible devastation that is taking place daily along the coastal cities of Texas and now Louisiana.  Many, many people...thousands...have been displaced from their homes due to extreme flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. My heart is breaking for these people who have no home to return to...and it will take years to recover their houses, communities and land.  But what I also see is a new spirit arising among our people...a spirit of love, of care and support, of people who may have not always agreed with each other before, coming together to lend aid and to truly care for those in such dire need. That is the true way to show that we love God...by loving one another. I pray our nation will continue to show this kind of love in the days ahead.

Lord, I pray today that You would indeed "search me, O God, and know MY heart...and see if there is any wicked way in ME...and lead me in the way everlasting."   And help me to do MY part to show Your love and to help those in great need.  

Amen.