Real People, RealTestimonies

My favorite sports and faith columnist, Terry Pluto, has hit another home run. His faith column in this morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer is titled "Find powerful stories from everyday people in every church." In the article, Terry writes about going to a church in Michigan's upper peninsula that maybe was attended that service by 25 people. But there were some very faithful people there. Please read the article.

Also check out on my side bar a link to the Gray and Company website where you could order any of a number of books written by Terry Pluto.

My heart was blessed by this story, as I am small church person myself. I also think that we should glorify God in all things. God is just as much in it when I get over a cold as He is when a drug addict gets delivered. The Lord supplies when we get the money to make our house payment. He also supplies on a hot day when we scrape together enough change to buy a bottle of water.

And get this:There is the same amount of rejoicing in the presence of angels when the elementary school student comes to the Lord as when the town drunk does.

Donna Baker

About a month and a half ago I posted about a church service I attended where the special singing was my sister in law, Donna Baker. My daughter, Sylva, posted this video on GodTube. It is rather long as far as videos go, almost a half hour. Sit back and be blessed. Hit the pause on the music player.

Filthy Rags

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Isaiah 64:6 KJV

We're all sin-infected, sin-contaminated.
Our best efforts are grease-stained rags.
We dry up like autumn leaves—
sin-dried, we're blown off by the wind. Isaiah 64:6 The Message

In my last post, I expounded about those who wanted to earn God's favor. God's favor isn't earned, it's a gift of God's grace. I feel the Lord wants us to enjoy our Christian walk and if we are always trying to earn our way into Heaven, we will always worry if we have done enough.

This is one problem I have with legalistic beliefs. When have we done enough to earn our way into the kingdom of God?

I praise God for His grace and for his love of which there is no measure. And if there is no measure, how do we know how much we have to do to earn it?

We do works for God because we love God. We want to see those around us to accept His sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Or as the song says, Oh, how I love Jesus, because He first loved me.

Wait on the LORD

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31 KJV

But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.
Isaiah 40:31 Amplified

I was looking at this verse in my bible as I was waiting for service to begin. There has been a lot of opinion of the word, "wait." Some think the word means just sit and expect things to happen. Others think it means the same as what a waiter in a restaurant would do.

One of those opinions in and among of itself smacks of "easy believe ism." The other of "legalism."

Yes, we should serve the Lord by serving others, but we should also remember that God's blessings is a result of His grace and not as payment of services rendered.

We should do the things we do for the Lord because we love Him. We get blessings from God because, and only because He loves us. We are to wait for the Lord to bless us. He will in HIS time. He will give us the endurance to finish the race.

Free Byrd

In this morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer, Terry Pluto reviews a book written by Cleveland Indians pitcher Paul Byrd, titled Free Byrd. The book tells about Byrd's struggle as a pro athlete and Christian.

Pluto wrote a real good review of the book, starting out discussing when Byrd would be spending long nights in a hotel room looking at his computer screen, wondering if he would give in to looking at porn, a problem Terry Pluto himself has confessed to having had.

Another part of the review I liked and one that I could identify with is Byrd being a young Christian and being too aggressive with evangelistic efforts and turning people off to the Lord.

It blesses my heart when a local sports figure professes his faith and writes a testimony about it. This is definitely a book I have got to check out.

Praise the Lord

Psalm 150

1-6 Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy house of worship,
praise him under the open skies;
Praise him for his acts of power,
praise him for his magnificent greatness;
Praise with a blast on the trumpet,
praise by strumming soft strings;
Praise him with castanets and dance,
praise him with banjo and flute;
Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum,
praise him with fiddles and mandolin.
Let every living, breathing creature praise God!
Hallelujah!

This version of Psalm 150 comes from The Message.

I have no comment except enjoy the scripture and go out and Praise the Lord.

Come unto me

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 KJV

As those who read my blogs know, I have been somewhat under the weather this weekend, so I haven't been blogging as much as usual. I have however been emailing a fellow blogger, and this topic came into my heart as a result.

There are many who have gone through much in recent times. We can tell others and we sometimes get a shoulder to cry on, other times we may find we are in competition with others, as they launch into a game of "can you top this." As a result of struggles, many question their religion.

Jesus says "Come onto me." He doesn't say come unto the Pentecostals, the Baptists, the Catholics, the Lutherans, The Methodists, etc. This is where our childlike faith comes in. We are to come unto Jesus. He wants us to take HIS yoke upon us. He wants to take our load upon Himself and help us. He wants to lighten our burden. He wants to give our souls rest.

Jesus is here for us when others aren't. When we are alone and afraid, He is the still small voice in the night that gives us comfort.

There are many good Christians, but we all are human, and as such, we may fail. We are to be like Christ and reach out to others. We are to help others carry their load.

I am going to end this post by giving the same text, Matthew 11:28-30, from the version known as The Message:

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."