Terry Mcilvoy, Pastor

Five Bites of Thanksgiving – Today our salad

“by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, …” (2 Peter 1:4a, ESV)

Promises, promises we all make them and try as we might we fail and for the most part people try to keep them. Even in addiction people make sincere promises of sobriety. To understand the power of this simple verse we need to look at how no person can perfectly keep all the promises they make and see how God can keep all of His promises.

What hinders us from keeping our promises? Sin. Our sin and the sin of the world. A businessman makes bad decisions from greed and a company closes leaving the employees unable to pay their bills and keep the financial promises they have made. A husband makes a promise in the wedding vows and after time another woman, the forbidden fruit becomes to much, and the vows of fidelity are broken forever.

God’s promises are different. He is unaffected by sin. He is perfect and holy. His nature is loving and kind. He is faithful and patient. Oh, and being God He has the power to fulfill all He wills. So, when God makes a promise, we can be assured that it will come to pass. In scripture promises are often called covenants and the New Covenant, a new promise established by God the Son, Christ Jesus is sealed in His blood.

So, by the Holy Spirit Peter came to know how precious, priceless, invaluable, and to treasure God’s promises for life. He understood the magnitude of the promises and how great they were to extend beyond this present life to be fulfilled in the coming age. He used this to encourage believers who were under persecution for their faith.

Be thankful for the promises of God in your life because they are real and knowing this of God will help you daily in your struggles with sin, fear, doubt, frustration, hopelessness, worry, pride, anger, greed, and all manners of evil that will come upon you. The promises are your anchor in the storm of life.

Remember the words of Jeremiah when you need to hope that is restored from giving thanks for God’s promises.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11, ESV)

God’s word are eternal and will never fail! Give thanks.

General

Five Bites of Thanksgiving – Today the Soup Course

The age we live in is often called the information age. Information once contained in books and libraries in obscure places is now easily available through quick searches on smart devices. Yet with all that knowledge has our understanding of what is truly important increased? In scripture such an increase in knowledge is a prophetic sign of Christ’s return.

“But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”” (Daniel 12:4, ESV)

What is most important for us to know both in this life and as a means to enter the life after this life? The answer to that is one of the greatest reasons we have for being thankful to God.

For our soup course consider the words of 2 Peter3:b

“…through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,” (2 Peter 1:3b, ESV)

God has given believers the knowledge of Himself and this is a great reason to be thankful.

Because only by knowing Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior will our sins be forgiven and we will enter eternity with God.
Knowing God as our loving Father will help us to walk through this life facing all the challenges that we will encounter. He is our strength.
Knowing His abiding presence of the Holy Spirit we can live in joy, filled with hope, and at peace.

If you know God and you know The Way then all you need for life has been granted to you by God. Rejoice and be thankful.

General

Five Bites of Thanksgiving (Nov. 23)

2020 may be one of the toughest years we have had since 2001. There are challenges and concerns about life and not just financial. Many hoped for an end to the death of the plague, yet it continues. Some of our oldest family and friends see the plague as a way of escaping a life that has become too much of a burden. Some of our younger folks simply are tired of trying to make sense of this world. In all cases for all people hope is in short supply.

Yet God is a wellspring of hope, a river of life, that will never run dry. The means to direct this life-giving water of hope into our lives is in giving thanks. Beyond this life and this world God has given believers many reasons for thanksgiving. So as the grass withers and fades so does this world and nothing lasts forever except the Word of God.

So, let’s take time and savor the bounty God has set before us in a five-course meal of thanksgiving this week.

For the appetizer consider these words from 2 Peter 1:3-5

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…” (2 Peter 1:3a, ESV)

God’s divine unlimited power has been given to all who will believe. In that power God will transform our lives to let us be born again to a new and living hope. God will not just give us life but he will grow us and walk with us to make us into the image of our Savior to be godly before Him.

General

Lunch Bite

“*For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.*” (Psalm 50:17, ESV)

Well you made. The week is nearing an end. How did you do this week? Stop take time, reflect with God, and let Him speak into your life today.

Everyone hates discipline as children and even more as adults. Discipline means we have done something wrong, will pay the consequences, and may need to make amends. Even in an accident someone is in the wrong. We hate to be wrong. Being wrong strikes at our sense of self, wounds our pride, and crushes our ego.

Another factor in rejecting discipline or wrong is that the person administering justice is no better than we are. They make mistakes, they are prone to doing wrong and they are prone to, shall we say it, sin. Then comes the statement, “So, who gives them the right to judge me.”

This is true in a sense though in most cases those who judge and discipline, parents, teachers, law enforcement, and judges do so in setting aside all bias and administer discipline in concern to help. Try as they might they are still prone to human errors.

None of this applies to the discipline God brings in our lives. God is perfect, holy, loving, and kind. He wants the best for us and will discipline us to correct the sin in our lives to give us the best of Himself. He does this with His word, the Bible. As the psalmist states, God sees that we hate His love in discipline. This may be the reason so many people refuse to open the Bible and let God speak. They will not like the message.

God’s love comes in correction see Psalm 51 and Hebrews 12 to see how legitimate children of God are loved through discipline. The rejection of God’s discipline is saying to God I do not want you to be my Heavenly Father, I want to terminate your parental rights, I do not want to live with you forever.

Find a Bible and let God speak His love to you though The Word.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1, ESV)

General

Lunch Bite

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—” (Romans 5:12, ESV)

The leading factors contributing to death in this country from the CDC are:

Heart disease: 655,381
Cancer: 599,274
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 167,127
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 159,486
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 147,810
Alzheimer’s disease: 122,019
Diabetes: 84,946
Influenza and pneumonia: 59,120
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 51,386
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 48,344

The leading cause of death in the US according to statistics maintained by private research groups is 1,095,000 deaths from abortion. That is approximately 3,000 abortions per day in the US. Approximate is the best we can do because abortion mills are not required to report the number of abortions performed.

Every death is the result of sin as scripture tells us in Romans 5. With one man sin and death came to all men. We are without hope because of the condition that will kill us all, sin! Yet we laugh at our sins, dismiss our sins, hide our sins, excuse our sins and never take responsibility for our sins. God is not laughing. He is offended yet merciful. He is angry yet just. He is vengeful yet loving. So what does God do?

“Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:14–19, ESV)

Obedience to the point of death on a cross. Do you see it the cure for sin is the free gift of Christ’s death.

General

Lunch Bite

““With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:6–8, ESV)

How good of a listener am I. That is a really good question. I try to read a lot scripture everyday because I need it and because I am always asking the question God what do you want from me. God speaks but am I listening.

Believers tend to come at God with all of what they can do and offer even the poorest of believers. (Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”). We want God to take notice of us with extravagant acts of religious devotion. we say we are doing it out of love for God. But are we really. Are we listening to what God says he wants from us or are we trying to get the spotlight on how special we are by calling attention to ourselves.

This is what God says he wants are we ready to listen?

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Treat others better than you treat yourselves and see every person even the worst sinner and heathen as a child of God.
Love being a kind person just for the sake of being kind. Not so others can see and praise you for your kindness but simply loving to count others more important than yourself.
Don’t just be humble but live a life of humility. The only way we can do that is to listen to what God says from His word and strive to exalt God above ourselves in every moment, decision, and action we take throughout the day.

General

Lunch Bite

“*When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”*” (John 5:6, ESV)

It always amazes me when reading scripture that if I keep the right perspective on who Jesus is then what is being said makes more sense. Take the question he asked the lame man, “Do you want to be healed.” If we consider this story (John 5:1-5) and how long this man laid next to this pool begging and hoping for a miracle we would think how insensitive and uncaring the question. Of course the man wants to be healed. Yet, Jesus knows his heart and he wants to heal the right ailment. Look at the man’s response.

“The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”” (John 5:7, ESV)

The man’s response was all wrong, he was counting on someone to help him and that failed, he was counting on superstition or worse demonic when the waters were stirred and that failed. Then Jesus responds, “Get up.” This is a command from the Lord and the man got up.

Is Jesus asking you today if you want to be healed. Like the man in the story are we looking for help from other sources and like the lame man these all will fail. Jesus wants you to be healed and he commands healing in your life if we will be obedient and get up this Monday and go into the world healed for all to see. That’s what happened with the lame man he boldly marched through the streets and people took note that this man was healed. The healing we need today is from the leading cause of death in the world SIN! Everyone who dies experiences death because sin came into the world and with sin death just as God said. Jesus asks today, “Do you want to be healed?”

General

Lunch Bite

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13, ESV)

Well it’s Friday. You are close to the end of the week and maybe a time of rest. One of the most amazing gifts of God is the gift of hope. I said in an earlier lunch bite that hope is the energy drink of life. With it we can endure anything and without hope life fades quickly.

The Holy Spirit speaks through Paul in Romans that God is the only source for hope and in this hope we can have peace and rest and in the power of God. We are given hope not in small measure but an abounding hope.

To see the power of hope in your life take a few minutes and look back at the past week. Note each time you have seen God’s faithfulness in the joy, strength, comfort, peace, and deliverance given to you. Now use this to be prepared and ready to face the coming days be assured of the promise of God that he will fill you with hope in the future just as he did in the past.

“For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:24–25, ESV)

God is giving us the hope we need for days ahead when we cannot see the days but He can. Look of God’s abounding hope in your life.

General

Lunch Bite

“*“But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!*” (2 Chronicles 6:18, ESV)

In our Wednesday night Bible Study we have been studying the temples of God as the means God has established to dwell among His children. In the study on Solomon’s temple I came to this verse in Solomon’s dedication of the first temple in Jerusalem. The temple was 90 feet by 30 feet and 45 feet tall. A fairly large building.

Solomon noted in his prayer how will God who cannot be contained by the heavens, by eternity, or by infinity abide and dwell in the presence of His people in such a small space. It was beyond the thinking of Solomon as to how and much more why would God want to dwell with us.

In the New Testament we learn that because of Jesus’ work that God’s presence of Holy Spirit dwells with believers and abides in us. If Solomon as the wisest to have ever lived ponders the question of how can such a small house contain the presence of God. We should question now even more how can God’s presence dwell and abide in us as believers.

If God’s presence fills space an fills it infinitely how is it that we can have any room in our lives for worry, doubt, fear, loneliness, pursuing pleasures, lusts, anger, resentments, bitterness, forgiveness, hatred, feeling unloved, disobedience, worldly pursuits, anxiety, and the list could go on for every sin of mankind. This makes me think of the response to Joseph on the night Jesus was born and he was looking for lodging for Mary who was in labor. The response was there is no room. That should be our response to everything that we will encounter today and every day that wants to try to get into our life, no room because God dwells here.

Devotion

Lunch Bite

Job 1:13–22 (ESV)
13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Today is hump day Wednesday you are half way to the end of the week. Maybe it has been a challenging, troubled, or even tragic week. Maybe you feel like you are trying to swim upstream in a raging river. God teaches us a lesson through Job on how to handle these days. Can you imagine and maybe you can what it would be like to get bad news continually as Job did. Four times (my highlighting) one after the other, no time to breathe or to take it in or to process the news before the next messenger arrives. Like a flood that is about to overcome as Job’s life is crashing down around him.

Job’s response to these tragedies and our lesson is to fall down and worship God. It seems impossible to find relief and hope in such cascade of disaster and even more when they response should be to turn to God and worship. Job knew God could have prevented him from losing everything. In that desperate time Job worshiped God.

From this passage I have given advice to others and sometimes remember to apply it to my own life that in the midst of a hard day, a bad day, or even a tragic day to sing a song. To sing to God any song even if we don’t know the words to a song. Sing what we know and worship God. Hum if you must but make a joyful noise to God. Deny sin and Satan the victory of despair blessing God who gives and takes away.