Post 3 Chaplain's Monthly Moments

As you go shopping in stores lately you will find people getting busier and busier as the days get closer to Christmas.  They start running around looking for that last-minute present or that forgotten dinner item. The streets get crowded, and you wish to never drive again till the next year.  

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All this busyness must not crowd out the one true meaning of the Christmas season.  The greatest event the world has ever known. The birth of Jesus Christ our Messiah!

Have you ever had a time when you had a great future idea go sour?  I have!  The problem is these ideas going sour can have a profound effect on your future life.  I decided to be a lab technician after graduating from college.  I didn’t realize that the lab school fills up quickly.  So here I am a graduate with no job.  So, I quickly plan to get a good job in the Air Force as a pharmacy technician.  I also get married to a wonderful woman.  The point here is getting married is the only thing I talked to God about to see if it was His will.  He tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  

​We have a way of jumping into big things without praying about them.  The Lord has ways of letting you know what His plan is for you.  He also can fix things that we mess up that weren’t His plan, or the enemy tried to destroy.  Going into the Air Force might not have been His plan for me, but the Lord worked His plan for me around my career.  Writing messages and talking about the Word of God is part of the plan the Lord has for me.  You may already know the Lord’s plan for you.  If you don’t, pray to the Lord and ask Him what He has in store for you today.  

It’s harvest time.  Driving down State Rout 37 and County Rd 180 you can see the farmers harvesting their crops.  They put all their time and money into these crops, so why should they share any with God?!  The Word has many references about tithing, from bringing the whole tithe into the storehouse (Malachi 3:10) to you are under a curse---because you are robbing me (Malachi 3:9) and so on.  God even states he loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7).  

So why should we give Him some of our hard-earned wages.  He made it available for us in the first place.  He provided the rain, sun and dirt.   He provided the opportunity for us to get the jobs we needed.  If that isn’t enough, God really owns everything anyway.  The Word states “for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalms 50:10). 

Believe what I say, you can not out give God!  He has been there for me and my family.   You can look up many successful people like the president of Hobby Lobby, Steve Green, and his Christian statement with money.  God doesn’t need your money.  So why give Him back some of His own money?  He wants to see if you will support His church in spreading the Gospel.

The season is here when the leaves on the trees start to turn all types of colors. People love to see them and take pictures. The problem is this can be a very quick happening. The best color for the leaves doesn’t last for very long, only about 2 weeks. People must be quick to get the best pictures.

The Bible tells us our lifespan is shorter than we think. “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14b,c). The average life expectancy in this world is 79.25 years. Your soul lives forever. The question is where do you want to live after life in this world? Life in this world is very brief. Life after this world is eternal! The Word of God tells us “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Revelation 3:20). Jesus is ready to have a relationship with you. 

We have a choice to accept Jesus as the Son of God or not to. The Word states for, ““Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”” (Romans 10:13). You will be saved from the place made for the devil and his followers. It is such an easy thing to do. 'If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved “(Romans 10:9). Accept Jesus today. You may not have a tomorrow. 

It is hard to build confidence in something that you can’t see. The Israelites had a hard time of it putting confidence in God and Moses when they left Egypt. They failed constantly over the years in the Promised land. 

You would think the Israelites would be overjoyed to finally have someone to see to put their confidence in when Jesus was born. Alas, this was not to be, and He gave his life for our sins. 

 I learned about putting my confidence in the Lord during a recent project. I was asked if I could find some people to help move an elderly lady. I said sure! The problem was she had to be moved in 5 days. I started to ask around and only one good friend, a brother in the Lord could help. He could only help on the 1st after 5pm. My wife and I started to move her. Then our house AC died and caused more problems to work out. I had forgotten with everything going on where to put my trust. I finally woke up during a devotion to my problems and asked the Lord for help with everything going on in my life. I needed a U Haul truck because of possible rain. More people for the big furniture. We needed to get my AC/furnace fixed right away because I can’t handle sleeping in the heat. The Lord gave me “but blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” (Jeremiah17:7) August 1st came around and I received a phone call from a church friend who was relaying a message from the friend helping that evening. He also had a window AC we could borrow till our AC was repaired. The friend and his wife not only put the AC in but also helped move. The lady that we were moving had a son coming with a U Haul truck and was going to help with the move.  We now had several people helping with the move, all provided by the LORD. “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” 

Colonists came to America for political liberty, religious freedom and economic opportunity. We see this in the Puritan colonists coming to America to escape religious persecution. 

The founding fathers, even though not all Christians, were all men of God. They made sure that the morality and unalienable rights of God were in the foundation of our government, the constitution. 

Francis Bellany, a socialist minister, wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance in August 1892. He hoped it could be used for any country. Our country added the words “the Flag of the United States of America” in 1923. President Eisenhower encouraged the Congress to add “under God” in 1954 because of the communist threat at the time. This is the pledge we now know. 

Our nation truly needs to be under God. We need God’s Word to live our lives with moral decency showing love and respect for our fellow person. You can see what happens to a country that doesn’t live under God by reading the Old Testament. Israel is destroyed and taken over by another country. 

We are ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.

Moses sent men into the land of Canaan to explore, and they found all kinds of great things there. They even found giants! They were called the Nephilim the descendants of Anak. The people were afraid to go into the land and this cost them forty years in the wilderness (Numbers 13-14). The years passed on to the time of David. The Israelites were at war with the Philistines and had a giant named Goliath fighting for them. All the Israelite warriors were too afraid to go against this man. David convinced King Saul to allow him to fight the giant. He took a stone and knocked him out with a sling shot. He killed him with the giant’s own sword. The Lord gave him wisdom and strength (1Samuel17).

We have giants in our lives too. They might not look like huge people, but they are big things in our lives. The differences between storms and giants in our lives is that storms are problems that come up suddenly and giants are problems or troubles that occur for a long time. Giants could be a long-term illness, money problems, a bad car, a bully. God gives us a way to get our giants by using the sword of the spirit God’s “Word” (Bible). People tell us they will help us and then when the time comes to do it back off. God will not leave you alone. The Word says “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze” (Isaiah 43:2). The Israelites remembered past times and understood the word. We can relate to this too. Jesus said in John 14:27 that He gives us peace that the world does not give us. We should now not let our hearts be troubled and afraid.

Do you want your giants gone? Let Jesus be your Lord by asking Him into your heart today!

We all like the coming of spring time. Spring brings warm weather to get rid of winter’s cold. Spring brings storms with it too. That part of it we can do without. The same can be said with our lives. There are days when everything will seem to be going great. Then suddenly a storm will come up and things will start to fall apart.

Jesus said there will be storms/ trouble in our lives, but He overcame everything by overcoming the world (John16: 33)! Jesus demonstrated how he can help us overcome our personal storms in our lives. He took the disciples in a boat out on lake Galilee on a calm day. Then suddenly a furious storm came up. Jesus was sleeping in the boat. The disciples woke him saying Lord save us we’re going to drown! Jesus told them they had little faith, and wondered why they were so afraid. He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves (Matthew 8:23-27).

Jesus can calm the storms in your life if you have him in your life. You must confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved and have Him in your life. 

Do you want to have peace in this world? Ask Jesus in your life now!