May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13
What does it mean to be filled with all joy and peace in believing? Have you ever considered God “the God of hope”? Do you abound in hope? Have you met anyone who abounds in hope? How do they live?
This story was sent to me:
A little girl walked daily to and from school. Though the weather that morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trip to school.
As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with thunder and lightning. The mother of the little girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school, and she herself feared that the electrical storm might harm her child. Following the roar of thunder, lightning, like a flaming sword would cut through the sky.
Full of concern, the mother quickly got in her car and drove along the route to her child's school.
As she did so, she saw her little girl walking along, but at each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up and smile. Another and another were to follow quickly, each with the little girl stopping, looking up and smiling.
Finally, the mother called over to her child and asked, "What are you doing?" The child answered, "Smiling, God just keeps taking pictures of me."
And maybe that is an image of abounding in hope, yes maybe that is being filled with joy and peace. Knowing that God cares about us so much that God would never abandon us, and looking at fear in the face and smiling. Smiling because God is with us then too, and we aren’t alone. An old English proverb says it best, “Fear knocked on the door and faith answered. No one was there.” Today let us pray that the God of hope may fill us with all joy and peace in believing, so that not only we will not fear, but also that we may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s a good way to be.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
The Greatest Power on Earth
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” – Jeremiah 31:3 (NRSV)
How has God been faithful to you? Have you felt the everlasting love of your God? Have you experienced great love from others? How so? What did it feel like? What did it do for you as a person?
The following is a response from Warren Buffet after being asked the question, “What is the best advise you have ever received?” He begins by speaking of his father and then says:
"The power of unconditional love. I mean, there is no power on earth like unconditional love. And I think that if you offered that to your child, I mean, you’re 90 percent of the way home. There may be days when you don’t feel like it — it’s not uncritical love; that’s a different animal — but to know you can always come back, that is huge in life. That takes you a long, long way. And I would say that every parent out there that can extend that to their child at an early age, it’s going to make for a better human being."
Everlasting love, unconditional love, that love that loves us just because, that is the love that grabs us and lets us know that we can become great! God loves us with an unending, awe-inspiring love. Why? Because that is who God is. When we finally realize that it is then we get on living life the way we were meant to live, knowing that we have the greatest power on earth with us, unconditional love. Maybe someone is asking, “How are we meant to live?” Well giving unconditional love in return. Loving God and loving others, and how great would it be if we extended that to all we encountered?
With hope and joy,
Garrett
How has God been faithful to you? Have you felt the everlasting love of your God? Have you experienced great love from others? How so? What did it feel like? What did it do for you as a person?
The following is a response from Warren Buffet after being asked the question, “What is the best advise you have ever received?” He begins by speaking of his father and then says:
"The power of unconditional love. I mean, there is no power on earth like unconditional love. And I think that if you offered that to your child, I mean, you’re 90 percent of the way home. There may be days when you don’t feel like it — it’s not uncritical love; that’s a different animal — but to know you can always come back, that is huge in life. That takes you a long, long way. And I would say that every parent out there that can extend that to their child at an early age, it’s going to make for a better human being."
Everlasting love, unconditional love, that love that loves us just because, that is the love that grabs us and lets us know that we can become great! God loves us with an unending, awe-inspiring love. Why? Because that is who God is. When we finally realize that it is then we get on living life the way we were meant to live, knowing that we have the greatest power on earth with us, unconditional love. Maybe someone is asking, “How are we meant to live?” Well giving unconditional love in return. Loving God and loving others, and how great would it be if we extended that to all we encountered?
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Minister's Minute from July Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy
Recently I had someone tell me, “Garrett, I feel in love with God because of how my life has changed here.” The here that was mentioned was our church. This person then went on to explain how life has changed, and I was able to witness how the Gospel of Jesus the Christ changes lives!
We talk about praying to become God’s hope and joy. Have you ever really thought about that? Have you considered how crazy that is? Have we really any idea how much our lives are going to change when God begins to answer those prayers? Many of us probably have some idea, because we have already seen the power of the Gospel at work in our lives. Many of us have discovered God changing us. Perhaps we discovered it when we woke up one morning and from some place out of the blue said, “Thank you Jesus for another morning.” I know that happened once because someone told me. Maybe we discovered it gradually, taking inventory of our lives as we sometimes do and realizing, “Wait a second, I am not the same person I was and that is a good thing.”
Or maybe some of us are thinking, “Nothing has changed about me.” It might be that those of us who say that nothing has changed haven’t begun to pray to become God’s hope and joy. Perhaps prayer is a scary thing to some of us, as though it is something we do only when we are in danger. Danger of losing our jobs, health, vitality, security, or whatever else often causes prayers to be raised by those who haven’t prayed in years. And since we only know how to pray when dangers surround us, we do not know how to pray when things seem okay or even good. What if we actually believed that no matter how good life is it could be better?
The thing is it can be better! Prayer is a relationship with God, and when we pray to become God’s hope and joy in this world, when we pray that the power of the Spirit overtake us, that the Gospel Truth might change us, we pray for a better life no matter how good life is. Why pray for a better life when life seems good? Because with Jesus it can always get better! When those dangers surround us that cause the majority of our prayer lives now, we will still pray with our concern and grief, but we will also pray to a God we know is for us and is with us, because we have been praying to that God for so long anyhow.
Our church has grown quickly, and recently the growth has slowed down and I believe that was necessary to ensure that we caught up to the growth we had. In praying to become God’s hope and joy the growth had to slow down so we could figure out how to take care of each other. In these last six months I have seen people begin to take care of each other in a way that did not happen when I first arrived, and did not happen for the first two years I was here. That is this church becoming God’s hope and joy!
We must never forget the power of the prayer we call our vision, and we must never cease praying it. There is much more that God has planned for us, I can feel it, and if you sit for a moment with your thoughts and with your God I know you can too. We must soon begin growing again. Why you might ask? Because there are others in our community who do not have a church, who do not know about God’s hope and joy as found in Jesus the Christ, who do not know that their lives can get better too! Some will never believe it, thinking that they can discover joy in the world alone, but we believe it. If you have discovered yourself changing it is time to get people into church who need changing too! If you know the love of Christ and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding do not keep it to yourself. There are thousands of people in Albany that need this church and we have to bring it to them and bring them in. God is counting on it. How will you help make our prayer of becoming God’s hope and joy a reality?
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
We talk about praying to become God’s hope and joy. Have you ever really thought about that? Have you considered how crazy that is? Have we really any idea how much our lives are going to change when God begins to answer those prayers? Many of us probably have some idea, because we have already seen the power of the Gospel at work in our lives. Many of us have discovered God changing us. Perhaps we discovered it when we woke up one morning and from some place out of the blue said, “Thank you Jesus for another morning.” I know that happened once because someone told me. Maybe we discovered it gradually, taking inventory of our lives as we sometimes do and realizing, “Wait a second, I am not the same person I was and that is a good thing.”
Or maybe some of us are thinking, “Nothing has changed about me.” It might be that those of us who say that nothing has changed haven’t begun to pray to become God’s hope and joy. Perhaps prayer is a scary thing to some of us, as though it is something we do only when we are in danger. Danger of losing our jobs, health, vitality, security, or whatever else often causes prayers to be raised by those who haven’t prayed in years. And since we only know how to pray when dangers surround us, we do not know how to pray when things seem okay or even good. What if we actually believed that no matter how good life is it could be better?
The thing is it can be better! Prayer is a relationship with God, and when we pray to become God’s hope and joy in this world, when we pray that the power of the Spirit overtake us, that the Gospel Truth might change us, we pray for a better life no matter how good life is. Why pray for a better life when life seems good? Because with Jesus it can always get better! When those dangers surround us that cause the majority of our prayer lives now, we will still pray with our concern and grief, but we will also pray to a God we know is for us and is with us, because we have been praying to that God for so long anyhow.
Our church has grown quickly, and recently the growth has slowed down and I believe that was necessary to ensure that we caught up to the growth we had. In praying to become God’s hope and joy the growth had to slow down so we could figure out how to take care of each other. In these last six months I have seen people begin to take care of each other in a way that did not happen when I first arrived, and did not happen for the first two years I was here. That is this church becoming God’s hope and joy!
We must never forget the power of the prayer we call our vision, and we must never cease praying it. There is much more that God has planned for us, I can feel it, and if you sit for a moment with your thoughts and with your God I know you can too. We must soon begin growing again. Why you might ask? Because there are others in our community who do not have a church, who do not know about God’s hope and joy as found in Jesus the Christ, who do not know that their lives can get better too! Some will never believe it, thinking that they can discover joy in the world alone, but we believe it. If you have discovered yourself changing it is time to get people into church who need changing too! If you know the love of Christ and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding do not keep it to yourself. There are thousands of people in Albany that need this church and we have to bring it to them and bring them in. God is counting on it. How will you help make our prayer of becoming God’s hope and joy a reality?
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Integrity: Being In God's Presence
In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever. – Psalm 41:12 (NIV)
What does it mean to have integrity? Do you have integrity? Have you met anyone with good character? How has meeting such people changed your life? Who is watching you as you go about your life? Are you a good example? How does integrity put you in the presence of God forever?
The following story came from Vanderbilt Today (Summer-Fall 1999) in an article entitled, “The Nature of Virtue,” by Gaynelle Doll.
My alma mater has an honor code that is respected throughout the university. Freshmen pledge to do their own academic work with integrity and to report those who do not to the student-run honor council.
Student signatures remain on display in the lobby of the Sarratt Student Center throughout their four years at the university. Alongside the signatures is a statement of the honor code as well as the words of the man for whom the building is named. Madison Sarratt, longtime dean of men at Vanderbilt University and a teacher in the mathematics department, died in 1978. He wrote, “Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good [people] in this world today who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good [people] in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty.”
Sarratt’s former students still speak of the effect those words have had on their adult lives.
Almost everything can be taken from us in this world. Our health, our stuff, those we love, our security, and much more can be taken in just a moment. One thing that can never be taken is our character, our integrity, our goodness. We can abandon our integrity and choose an “easier” way, but it is a way that leads away from God. When we keep our integrity in those moments it might seem best to lose it, it is then we are in the presence of God. And that is a good place to be because as John Knox said, “A man with God is always in the majority.”
With hope and joy,
Garrett
What does it mean to have integrity? Do you have integrity? Have you met anyone with good character? How has meeting such people changed your life? Who is watching you as you go about your life? Are you a good example? How does integrity put you in the presence of God forever?
The following story came from Vanderbilt Today (Summer-Fall 1999) in an article entitled, “The Nature of Virtue,” by Gaynelle Doll.
My alma mater has an honor code that is respected throughout the university. Freshmen pledge to do their own academic work with integrity and to report those who do not to the student-run honor council.
Student signatures remain on display in the lobby of the Sarratt Student Center throughout their four years at the university. Alongside the signatures is a statement of the honor code as well as the words of the man for whom the building is named. Madison Sarratt, longtime dean of men at Vanderbilt University and a teacher in the mathematics department, died in 1978. He wrote, “Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good [people] in this world today who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good [people] in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty.”
Sarratt’s former students still speak of the effect those words have had on their adult lives.
Almost everything can be taken from us in this world. Our health, our stuff, those we love, our security, and much more can be taken in just a moment. One thing that can never be taken is our character, our integrity, our goodness. We can abandon our integrity and choose an “easier” way, but it is a way that leads away from God. When we keep our integrity in those moments it might seem best to lose it, it is then we are in the presence of God. And that is a good place to be because as John Knox said, “A man with God is always in the majority.”
With hope and joy,
Garrett
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