Hillyard Weekly
March 6, 2019
The
Time of Life
The Clock Man by Shel
Silverstein
“How much will you pay for an
extra day?” The clock man asked the child. “Not one penny,” the
answer came, “For my days are as many as smiles.” “How much will you
pay for an extra day?” He asked when the child was grown. “Maybe a
dollar or maybe less, For I’ve plenty of days of my own.” “How much
will you pay for an extra day?” He asked when the time came to die.
“All of the pearls in all of the seas, And all of the stars in the
sky.”
How easy it is for us to spend our days in
unfruitful activity that instead of building, actually tear down
relationships. All of us have enemies, you know the type-those that
deliberately seek to hurt us. That hurt may be physical blows or it
may be mental games or put downs to others about us. In order to use
time wisely we should remember the psalm written by Moses where he
encourages us to let God teach us, “To number our days aright, that
we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) Wisdom will teach us
that we should use it in responding to our enemies. The question is
should we stand up to them or “turn the other cheek?” To decide,
answer these questions:
1) Is the issue worth it? Can I forgive and
forget or is something deeper at stake?
2) What is best for the other person? Will
confrontation teach or teardown?
3) Is my motive revenge? Am I defending myself
or fighting back?
4) How can I honor God and uphold His name in
this?
Striking a balance between truth and grace,
facts and forgiveness, love and rights is what keeping the faith is
all about.
Pastor Ron
March 13, 2019
Spiritually Awake
“Seek
the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.”
(Isaiah 55:6) What does it take to be in tune with God’s Spirit? Why
is it that some Christians experience so much more of the presence
of God than scores of other Christians? God does not have a list of
favorite Christians, special family members, so to speak. He will do
for any of His children the same as He has done for anyone. This
problem of being spiritually awake lies with us as children, not
with God our Father. A. W. Tozer, in his work, “The Pursuit of God,”
challenges us to look at the lives of great saints, both of the
Bible and of church history. He names a few like Moses, Isaiah,
Elisha and David and makes the point of how different each of these
men were. They had different backgrounds, training, occupations,
temperament and personal qualities. Tozer goes on to suggest that
the one thing they did have in common was a desire to be spiritually
in tune with God. He called it, “spiritual receptivity,” a desire to
be close to God, to think high Godly thoughts to the point that this
was the most important thing in their lives! They felt the inward
longing and they did something about it by responding spiritually.
David made this exact point in Psalm 27:8, “When You said seek My
face; my heart said unto You, Your face Lord, will I seek.” It seems
too simple, but that is how God works through His Spirit in those
that take the time, energy and the decisive power to be available.
“God does not communicate things to us so much as He just is Himself
in us. We are the vessels, the containers so that the first work
after the new birth is to cultivate the habit of receptivity.”
Norman Grubb Lord, give us that desire, like David, to simply seek
Your face, being open to the working of Your Spirit in us.
Pastor Ron
March 20, 2019
Together Growth
It is said that the largest living organism on
earth is an Aspen grove that covers many square miles. Aspens are
interdependent with each other and feed off of common root systems.
The same can be said of the church. God has made us in such a way
that we need each other to survive. We need the encouragement, the
admonishment, the help and we need to hear the truth. Tony Evans
comments on this needed aspect of the church life, “Church is like a
hospital. It’s where people who are sick, broken, bruised, beaten
and battered with life because of sin and unrighteousness come for
help. It is okay if you are in church and you don’t have all of your
life together. If you had all your life together you would not need
to be in church, right? However, hospitals do not tolerate sick
people hanging around that refuse to get better. No doctor is going
to keep fooling with a patient who won’t take his medicine or won’t
accept a needle but wants to occupy a room.” The church exists to
help people grow in Christlikeness. We do that together because we
are stronger at different times, struggling at different times and
are not all weak together. In order to be the kind of Christian that
God has designed you to be you need fellowship with the people of
God, dynamic in service, motivation and inspiration.
Pastor Ron
March 28, 2019
The
Choice: Be Faithful
Paul uses the picture of the human body parts
working together as a picture of the church working together. The
illustration is very fitting in that individual members have
differing gifts, abilities and commitment just like the various jobs
body parts perform. This fact has become very real to me as I’ve
been going through joint replacement of my right knee. With the
worn-out joint removed and replaced with a shiny metal and plastic
imposter one would think all would be well with the world. The
problem is that all the parts of that area of my anatomy were
affected and they all seem to have an opinion as to what was done.
They feel left out of the decision to do such a thing and I’m sure
if they had a vote nothing would have been done. Stiffness, sore,
immoveable and irritated, the muscles are speaking up. The surgeon
describes it as them being “down right mad!” Now is that not the way
we can be in the other body, the church? Something changes, someone
has a different way to do a job. We are limited by people’s skills
and abilities and we get like those muscles, “down right mad!” We
have our rights, our likes and dislikes and we don’t want to change!
The process is the same in both bodies. Resolve to work together, to
forgive and forget, to love and be loved, to show grace and freedom
to others, in other words, be faithful to where God has put you and
serve Him, along with all those other parts!
Pastor Ron