The 166

The 166

"Look carefully how you walk! Live purposefully and
worthily and accurately....making the very most of
the time (buying up each opportunity).
Ephesians 5:15-16 (Amplified)

My favorite radio station, K-Love, is unfortunately in another state. Their signal comes in for the first forty-five minutes of the ride home, fading out halfway between Buffalo and Rochester. Coming home from New York this week was no different. But just before the signal was lost, the host commented "my pastor has been preaching on the 166". As his voice was being lost in the crackle of the radio, I caught just enough to be challenged by the thought.

Most Christians spend an average of two hours a week in church leaving 166 hours spent outside of the church. The two hours of church, while a very small amount of time, are important for equipping us to serve, for stirring up our faith, as a time to experience the manifest presence of the Lord and to fellowship with others of like faith. But the majority of our time, "the 166", is spent outside the church and it is how we spend those hours that will determine our success in life and the measure of fruitfulness we achieve.

When Paul wrote in Ephesians about "making the very most of the time" we have been given, he was no doubt referring to those hours lived outside the church. It was a given that the believers would be in the house of the Lord whenever possible-soaking in as much of God as they could, strengthening their relationship with the Lord and gleaning from God's Word and God's people direction and inspiration.

But our challenge today is to take control of "the 166", choosing to "live purposefully" as the Amplified Bible words it. We have to make sure we are alloting time for the things that are most important to us, whether that be time spent with family and friends, time set aside for devotions and Bible study, or hours spent in a special area of interest that we enjoy. The hours we have been blessed with are a gift from the Lord and an opportunity that we have to be careful how we live. Using our 166 in a way that is productive, purposeful, and fruitful will require planning, discipline, self-control and more. But the end result will be a life that we can look back on with satisfaction and thankfulness.

This week's 166 may be almost gone but next week's opportunity to use our time for the glory of the Lord will be upon us before we know it. Let's determine to live our lives "purposefully, worthily and accurately".

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

In God's Hands

In God's Hands

"The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my
eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and
washed and then I could see." John 9:11

On the days when we feel very ordinary and unqualified for the tasks set before us, this story of Jesus healing a blind man is one of many that encourages us about what the Lord can do in each of our lives.

In performing this miracle of healing, Jesus took something that has no evident value or purpose, common mud, dirt mixed with water, and placed it on the man's eyes as a point of contact in his healing. It teaches us a lesson we need to learn and remember- that in God's hands, the ordinary is changed into the extraordinary, nothing becomes something, and nobodies become somebodies,

We have another example in Moses' life. God told him to take up the staff in his hand, a branch of a tree that had been dried out and carved into a walking stick. That staff, which Exodus 4:20 calls "the staff of God", became a symbol of God's power when it was thrown down and became a snake and, again later, when it was used to strike the waters of the Nile and turn them into blood. Outside of God's hand, it was powerless but in the hands of God, it was transformed into a tool to be used for His glory. And that really is the case for each of us. Outside and separated from God, we are powerless to bring about the changes and breakthroughs we long to see in those around us. But that is not the end of the matter.

When it comes to people, the disciples who were used to heal the sick, raise the dead, and perform many miraculous signs and wonders are referred to, in Acts 4:31 as unschooled, ordinary men." I find that verse to be one of the most encouraging verses in the entire Bible. It shows that our confidence need not be in ourselves, that we don't have to be insecure in our own lack of ability, talent, wisdom or strength. Our lives just need to be placed in the hands of God.
So many struggle trying to be "enough", good enough, strong enough, smart enough, and cool enough to be accepted by others. And the unfortunate result is increasing insecurity in lives that can never measure up. But maybe we don't need to measure up, maybe we don't need to be enough. We just need to realize that our sufficiency is from the Lord and then turn our lives over afresh to the Lord, allowing Him to make us the men and women He created us to be. We may not be as capable as we wish, but God is able! And that's where our hope lies.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Battery Power

Battery Power

"I am going to send you what my Father has promised but stay in
the city until you have been clothed with power from on high"
Luke 24:49

Batteries for clocks and watches, cell phones, I-pods and laptops, the remotes and the flashlights and let's not forget the smoke alarm that beeps at 3:00 am when the battery dies at a suspiciously ridiculous hour. We are battery dependent and battery power, no matter how good of an "energizer' we purchase, is always temporary.

In the last two weeks, I've been reminded of that several times. In Washington, D.C., I was at the top of the Washington Monument when the low battery indicator on my camera began to flash red, giving me a few more pictures before the camera shut down. And the "off-brand" replacements available at the souvenir stand lasted until we stood in front of the White House for our group photo and, you guessed it, ran out.

Then, last week, on the trip to Camp Michindoh with 43 7th graders whose parents were given my cell phone number to ease their fears, I forgot my charger. One last call from a dad who was worried about his son being away from home for the first time and my cell died at about 12:30 in the morning. It's at those moments that the importance of power, temporary or not, can be seen and appreciated.

Our strength in the natural is very similar to batteries in that, no matter how far we stretch it, it will eventually run out. And we were created by the Lord that way, needing sleep and rest to recharge our internal batteries, both being essential to our bodies functioning the way our Creator designed them to. Studies have shown the effects of sleep deficiency to be far greater than we realize, ranging from weakening the sharpness of our thinking to hindering our ability to handle stress and everyday problems.

Spiritual strength is no different. The strength to cope with the pressures and challenges of life needs to be renewed or we will face similar difficulties, finding ourselves making mistakes we never intended. It might be a word misspoken or a decision unadvised that is the result of our not keeping our spiritual batteries fully charged. Isaiah 40:30 tells us that "even youths grow tired and weary" but offers the promise in :31 that "they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength".

Just like Dave Auten tests our 9-volts every Sunday morning (with his tongue), we need to check our batteries on a regular basis, make sure we're staying recharged, and living with the strength and power, the wisdom and understanding that the Lord intended. The time invested in both rest and in the presence of the Lord will be well rewarded!

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Souvenir Row

Souvenir Row

"The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life."
Romans 6:23

The one-block area where we got off the tour bus contains Ford Theatre where President Lincoln was assassinated, the Peterson House where he was brought immediately after, and a host of shops packed with every possible souvenir to commemorate a visit to Washington, D.C.

For me it was off to the nearest McDonalds a block away for a soft drink. When I stepped up to the counter, my response to the customary "What can I get for you?" was a "can I have a large pop please?". The look on the waitresses face was a combination of "what is this guy talking about" and "I wonder how long he's been in the country". I quickly changed it to "can I have a large soda", a language she understood, damage done, communication accomplished and I received my plastic cup.

We have the phrase "to call a spade a spade" meaning to speak honestly and clearly about a subject or situation, to describe something as it really is. The English have a more blunt and forceful version saying "to call a spade a bloody shovel". But the point is the same, we need to call things as they are and not sugar coat them for the benefit of how we might appear to others or even to ourselves.

Billy Sunday, the baseball player turned evangelist in the early 20th century in America, termed it this way, "one reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake". I was in a conversation recently and was trying to graciously refer to something the person had done when they corrected me, saying "pastor that was nothing more than sin". Like the waitress in DC, I was taken back by their honesty and by their choice of words heard less and less lately. But it is only in being honest with ourselves and in calling things as they really are that we have any hope of change.

Our choice of words is not always as trivial as soda or pop. And while speaking positively certainly applies in many situations as our words declare our faith in God, calling things as they really are, calling sin sin, has tremendous advantages too. It brings us face to face with what separates us from the Lord and from His favor on our lives. That honesty with ourselves clears the way for change, for cleansing and for restoration to His presence.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church