03/27/2019
Have you ever had a day or moment when you felt like there were so many things coming at you that you clutched your head saying “I can’t take this anymore?” Life can make so much noise that you cannot think and the noise is all you hear.
Walking in church on Sunday reminded me of this kind of noise. A security alarm was stuck...ringing and ringing and ringing. We had a key to silence it but that only lasted a couple of minutes. Just not enough!!! After the majority of people left the church building, I silenced the alarm once again. Pastor Aj said to me “The silence sounds SO good and silent.”
Sometimes we live our lives with continual blaring noise and even forget how wonderful the silence is. We forget how relaxing, yet energizing the silence can be. Maybe that is something that you need to add to your life of faith. As we are talking about “Dangerous Prayers” on Sundays leading up to Easter, just maybe you could step away from the noise and into the silence with God. In my message Sunday, I shared about the Jewish practice of covering your head with a prayer shawl (called a tallit) understanding that a quiet place with God has been created. I sometimes think of that as a private tabernacle. If you are a mom or dad, imagine what a family member may say if they came upon you in a quiet room, sitting on the floor, with a covering over your head. I know--your family would probably tease you about that!!! Mom or Dad has lost it!!! But imagine the example you are setting for them and the benefit for you.
I believe we will lose our minds and souls if we don’t take moments to ground ourselves in God and to renew our souls! Why not try? Let me know what you discover!
Blessings, Patti
Archived Posts
What’s Saved Is Often Lost
Here’s the benediction we didn’t have time for yesterday (Sunday, November 3). It’s one of my favorite quotations (portions of a newspaper column). I hope you find it as inspiring as I have
Leftovers Continued…
It’s not just the fact that God is un-impressed by our leftovers, it actually goes deeper than that. In a sense, Jesus is passionately and purposely opposed to anything leftover. To be a follower of Jesus Christ is to work diligently to make sure that in the end nothing at all is left over.
Less Stuff and Fewer Wants
Here’s a point I left off Sunday’s sermon due to time and length. In dealing with an Entitled mindset it is very helpful if you can Reduce Materialism and Consumerism.
Entitlement Can Hit You in Ways You Might Never Suspect
The people of God (Israel) were chosen by God to fulfill a unique calling—to be a light to all the other nations of the nations of the world. God chose them because of their willingness to be used by Him for His purposes. But after a while the Israelites began to think that they were chosen--not because with God they could fulfill a special purpose--but because they were a special people, uniquely favored and loved for who they were.
What Kind of Love Do You Have For God?
In Sunday’s message about Job, I talked about how important relationship is when it comes to getting answers to our questions about God. The question that Job is really being tested on is this: can he love God for who God is—or does he only love God for what God can do for him?
The Importance of A Noise Cancelling Lifestyle
While hiding in a cave on the mountain the word of God asks Elijah, ‘What are you doing here?’ Elijah proceeds to launch into a rather whiney rant along the lines of “No one likes me, Everybody hates me, and all my hard work and sacrifice on your behalf, Lord, has fallen on deaf ears.”
And here’s what most people miss about this story:
So Is People Pleasing Such a Bad Thing?
This is a fair question, based on Sunday’s sermon. Wanting to make others happy isn’t a bad thing in itself. It’s what it does to the one who is compelled to please—someone with a compulsion to win the approval of others.