Month: July 2019

Add This To Your Vacation Plans

On By Ed AlgreenIn Believers, Church, Church attendanceLeave a comment

Wednesday, 2019-07-03

Bible Reference: Acts 21:3–4
Translation: The Good News Translation (GNT)

Bible Text:   3 ……. We went ashore at Tyre, where the ship was going to unload its cargo. 4 There we found some believers and stayed with them a week……

OBSERVATION: It might be challenging for many to get out of bed to attend church while on vacation, so to follow in Paul’s footsteps might be an impossible challenge for most! But I believe that our relationship with the Master helps us determine each week whether going to church is more important than anything else on our to-do list. Be ready to be challenged by the Word today as you read my blog!

APPLICATION:  By using the only means of transportation from one place to another, Paul wound up having to be at the Port of Tyre for over a week while goods were being unloaded for the local people. In our world today, think about when a cruise ship stops into a port. They will inevitably have lots of tours and/or suggestions for its passengers, but I don’t believe you would hear them suggest time at a local church, or listening, and ministering to the poor and downtrodden. What do you find to do while on vacation with regards to God, His church and/or His people? Do you tend to take a vacation from all of your ‘God related things’ also? I once heard a sermon entitled ‘Saints on Vacation’, and it truly was an eye opener! Here’s what I really enjoy about attending a church in the area in which I vacation: (a) It is refreshing to see God at work not only in my home church, but also in fresh new ways that are so apropos for the area that I am visiting. In other words, ministry in a rural town to mostly farmers, might look quite different to ministry in a coastal town to mostly college-aged kids. (b) I find that there is greater freedom to worship in a place that I am visiting, because we tend to build a box around us, as to what is permissible in worship at our home church, mostly because of what our friends and family may think. (c) I look for ideas that I could bring back and share with my home church. Perhaps a bulletin, or other literature; and (d) I find it refreshing to just worship with these new-found believers without the distraction of any side jobs on my mind. When it was time to leave the island, Paul’s new found Christian friends followed him to the seashore and sent him off with a prayer meeting. I believe that visiting a church while on vacation, might bring similar results, for fellow Christians are often out to minister to attendees – especially visitors! Be sure to always include church attendance as part of your vacation plans, won’t you?

PRAYER: Father, we are either a Christian or we’re not. We either want to be with you, or we don’t. These things will hold true in our normal work week, but they will also hold true even when we’re out of town and even when out of sight of our pastor or church leaders. Mixing with saints of other towns remind us a lot of what it might be like when we worship around Your throne with saints from all nations and all cultures from all over the world. Please help us to hold true to our faith, and to desire times of worship with other believers, even when out of town or far from our local church. Heaven will not just be made up of members of my church, so please help us to get used to the idea of worshiping with other believers while still here on earth. Thank You Lord for who You are and especially who You are to such a vast cloud of witnesses here on this earth today. I look forward to the day that we will all be gathered around your throne worshiping at Your feet! AMEN!

Recognizing Jesus

On By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

Monday, 2019-07-01

Bible Reference: Luke 5:5; 8-9;
Translation: Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

Bible Text: 5 Simon answered, “Master, we worked hard all night trying to catch fish and caught nothing. But you say I should put the nets into the water, so I will.” 
8-9 The fishermen were all amazed at the many fish they caught. When Simon Peter saw this, he bowed down before Jesus and said, “Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man!”10 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were amazed too. (James and John worked together with Simon.) Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on your work will be to bring in people, not fish!”

OBSERVATION: Simon Peter, James and John were all great fishermen, so to have a man walk along the shoreline and suggest that they go and toss their nets into the lake again, must have really come as a shock to them. But there must have been a mutual respect between them and Jesus, seeing that He was there to invite them to be disciples, and that they trusted Him enough to repeat an action they had already tried in vain all night. I wonder how we would recognize our Lord?

APPLICATION: For those of us that have grown up in church, I’m sure that this is a very familiar story to us. However, what I hope that each of my readers and I would gain from meditating on the Word of God, is that our Lord might become alive to us in a fresh new way today, for I believe what we learn through the power of the Holy Spirit, is intended for our edification today, and for a fresh application today. No I have no idea what you have planned today, nor what God has planned for you, but I believe the Word of God is alive today, and I know that our God has a plan for your life today, just as He did when He greeted Peter, James and John on that Galilean shoreline in our story. You see, we should be reminded that there was no accident in Jesus meeting Peter, James and John that day, for I’m sure that He already knew who His disciples would be. He just needed to convince these men that they were to drop what they were doing and follow Him as He ministered in their neighborhood. I believe that although the Holy Spirit had already been working in the hearts of these fishermen, Jesus wanted this to be a voluntary thing on their behalf. So this led to the miracle relayed in our Scripture today. It was something they related to, and something they knew could only result from a miracle of God. So thousands of years later, I want us to be obedient to the Holy Spirit, and allow Him to show us why this story was included in God’s Word, and how it might be applied to our situation today. I believe that God has much more to do on this earth, and when we look around us at the number of people who have chosen to ignore the Gospel, I believe we might quickly assume that I am referring to the work that we wish God would do in our particular realm of influence. While I know that God has the power, and that He will continue to deal in the hearts of our family and friends, I believe that He would just as soon use His earthly servants, you and I, to influence the lost and encourage those that we rub shoulders with every day. But are we willing to seek His face, recognize Him, and to drop everything to follow Him in obedience? Are we moldable, or are we too set in our own ways? Can we look beyond our own prejudices, and outside the box of our own abilities, to humbly let God do His miraculous work in every circumstance of life? Are you alert to the needs and circumstances of life around you, that You would recognize Jesus when He instructs you to make a move in His direction?

PRAYER: Thank You Lord for reminding us of the value You saw in Peter, James and John. Thank You for their obedience, and for their willingness to drop everything to follow You. Lord, I believe that You can, and will do this again – call the undeserved, the weak, the insignificant (in the eyes of this world), and that You will use even us, to reach the lost of our communities and those in our circle of influence. Please begin that work in me Lord, and for all readers who will commit, please also touch their lives and use them powerfully. AMEN!