Echoing Insights

Doctors and paramedics check for a pulse when someone is unconscious or when you are getting a checkup. Do they check to make sure you are still alive? Not always, sometimes just to see how fast your heart is pumping.

We also have a spiritual life that must have a pulse too. As Paul exhorted Timothy in,

 2 Timothy 1:6 For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

It’s good and important to meet with other believers, but we also have a responsibility to keep our own spiritual life pulsing with life. We must rekindle ourselves by reading His word daily and praying daily. Then when we meet, each one if us has something to offer to the whole church.

2 Thessalonians 3:13 But as for you, brethren, be not grow weary of doing good.

James 3:4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.

The above verse is surrounded by other verses about the tongue. It is interesting how the ship and steering it by a small rudder, is between all these verses about what we say. It’s obvious then how important our words are.

Noah’s ark had no rudder, from what I have heard, so that ark was powerless to direct itself and was in the hand of God, who powerfully brought it to dry ground when it was safe. Sometimes that is all we need, just to float around trusting in His power. 

Most of the time we need to pilot ourselves. We should always steer towards Jesus Christ and His path that leads to salvation for us and those around us.

Each of us needs quality time, in the presence of God, to know Him intimately and hear from Him through prayer and reading our Bible on a consistent and regular basis. 

The fruit of our lives should be good, and our words should encourage others to pursue God’s ways.

Remember that it’s not always smooth sailing, but He is faithful to help us find Him if we search for Him with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength.

Recently some of us were practicing for songs to sing during our Easter service. Lanette was playing on the piano and she said the B flat isn’t playing. Sometimes it would play but other times it was silent.

Well, I was singing the alto part and the B flat was very important for my part. I needed to practice my part at home, so I ask Lanette to play my part and I recorded it on my phone to use at home while I sang along with it. That missing B flat made it very difficult to sing smoothly and to efficiently learn my part. I even texted to Lanette how it was really bothering me because of the missing B flat.

Then God revealed to me that each one of us is very important, and when one is missing, it affects the whole church body. Just like the song without the B flat has a missing sound, the church without you, is incomplete.  

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10.

Galatians 6:9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

It has been a very long, trying time for all of us. We have been stretched and pulled in new ways we never imagined we would be. We had to change and adapt in unbelievable ways. 

We must remember who motivates us and why. God is our source and reason we can and must keep moving forward. 

Spending time alone with the Lord recharges us. Reading our Bible and spending time in prayer is so vital for our love to grow towards God and others. If we try to do it on our own, we will be frustrated and lose heart.

Psalm 46:10 “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

The two verses (Galatians 6:9 & Psalm 46:10) may seem to contradict each other. That is where the Holy Spirit comes in and empowers you with wisdom to know exactly what to do and His power to do it.

We must also continue to meet as the church. We get strength from encouraging and helping each other. We are the body of Jesus Christ, and each part of His body is needed.

It is our personal relationship with Jesus Christ that helps us 24/7 and our church gathering that builds on that.

Rock of Escape

Sometimes it may feel like you are not making any positive progress, don’t give up yet! God will deliver you from every situation you find yourself in. Keep moving forward. God will lead you, guide you, and protect you!

Just see how God helped David when Saul was trying to kill him:

 1 Samuel 23:14b And Saul sought him (David) every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand. 23:26 Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. 

23:27 But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land.” 

23:28 So Saul returned from pursuing David and went to meet the Philistines; therefore, they called that place the Rock of Escape.

This is only one example of how God helped David. Don’t worry about what is on the other side of the mountain, we just keep moving forward in the Spirit of the Lord our God and trust His leading.

Since God is the same yesterday, today and forevermore, He will help you also. We can trust in Him.The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock in whom I take refuge, My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:2 

Mushrooms in the desert???           Or…            Cactus in a cave???

Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it. Because it is. Certain plants live in specific areas for one reason only, so they can grow. Cactus is prickly and mushrooms are squishy. Light and water make the difference here. God creates different environments for each plant and plants automatically know where it’s the place for them to grow.

God’s light, or enlightenment in our life, makes a difference in us. His Word, the Bible, is our light, and prayer is our watering place.

God designed us to grow the same way plants grow. We are created in His image, so it makes sense that we should grow to be more like Jesus. This earth is far from perfect. But Jesus Christ lived on earth, and He showed us how to live abundantly. By being obedient to the Father in heaven. 

Philippians 2:8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Ephesians 5:8-10 – For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.