The Walking Stick

The Walking Stick

"And Aaron's staff...had not only sprouted but had budded,
blossomed and produced almonds." Numbers 17:8

If you've ever made a walking stick for going on a hike, you know the process. First, find a good branch from a tree, not too thin and not too thick. Then strip all the bark off it and, lastly, leave it in the sun to dry out. And no doubt, that's what Aaron did, along with many others, during their journey through the wilderness, walking through the arid Sinai Peninsula.

Aaron took a branch off an almond tree and it became his trusted staff, strong enough to support and steady him as he walked. That is until one day when God had need of it. God said "I'm going to rid myself of this constant grumbling about who should be in charge" and He used the walking sticks of the leaders to do it. Each of the leaders of the twelve tribes gave Moses their walking stick, he carved their names on them, and then placed them in the Tabernacle as God had commanded him.

As we consider these walking sticks, these branches off trees, we have to remember that they were once full of life, with leaves and buds that flowered and fruit that appeared on the branches. And they had been cut off for a purpose that seemed far less important than bearing fruit for others to enjoy. These branches off trees had been stripped bare and laid in the sun to thoroughly dry out before being used. Sometimes we go through similar experiences where we are left feeling dry and barren, without hope for our future, not realizing that God still has a plan for our lives.

In the story in Numbers 17, the Lord said that the staff of the man He had chosen would sprout leaves again, a pretty incredible, even impossible thing to happen. Twelve hours after being placed in the Tabernacle, Moses gathered up the walking sticks. Eleven of them were unchanged but Aaron's had budded, blossomed and produced almonds. It is a powerful example of what the Lord can do in our lives as we spend time in His presence. You may feel dry in your walk and relationship with the Lord but there is hope if you will spend time in His presence.

The miracle of the almond walking stick is a miracle waiting to happen in your life, taking you from feeling dry and cut off, to seeing your life blossom like never before. And the key, and really the key for every situation we face, is getting into His presence. For David to write in Psalm 16:9 "in your presence is fullness of joy", David must have had his own walking stick experience, a time when he allowed God's presence to transform him and fill him with life, with joy, and with a renewed purpose. The Lord wants to do the same for you, restoring hope and filling you with life as you experience the power of His presence.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace

If the Bible is the most popular book of all time, then Amazing Grace is without a doubt the most popular song of all time. Written in 1773 by John Newton, it has become America's spiritual national anthem for events of any magnitude. Amazing Grace has been heard at the Olympics, at presidential inaugurations and in crisis situations of every kind from the 9/11 tragedy to the more recent Utah coal mine disasters.

John Newton could write about grace because he had experienced it in his life. His mother, was was training her son in the scriptures, died just before his seventh birthday and John was shipped off to boarding school a short time later. Abandoned and abused, he ran away from the boarding school and returned to England living a life far from the values his mother had tried to instill in her son. As a young man, by his own admission, he was "a slave to doing wickedness". Newton made his way to Africa and took up with a Portuguese slave trader journeying across the Atlantic with human cargo. Then grace came raining down on John Newton life:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see

The storm on March 21, 1748 was unlike anything Newton had sailed through as it rocked the ship and began to flood it's holds. The storm was so severe that John began to contemplate death at sea without a Christian burial. When he was sent below by the captain to retrieve something, the man who took his place was immediatley washed overboard and grace-the unmerited favor or kindness shown to one who is totally undeserving-began to work in John Newton's life.

For the rest of his life, Newton believed that that wave had been meant for him and that he was saved for a higher purpose. As it can for each of us, a moment of grace is able to change a lifetime and an eternity. Newton found his way back to the God that his mother had so trusted in and served the Lord faithfully for the rest of his life as both a pastor and noted writer of hymns.

John Newton could say as Paul "I am what I am by the grace of God". Grace-that favor given freely to those who are without hope and without God in the world. Grace-the gift that is greater than all our failures and shortcomings.

Until his death is 1807, Newton observed March 21 as a special day of remembrance, a day he marked with "humility, prayer and praise". In the busyness of life, let's never forget all that God's grace has rescued us from and acknowledge, as we look at others struggling through life, "there go I but for the grace of God". And realize that His grace is still available today to strengthen and enable us for all we face.


God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Average Person

The Average Person

Studying the average person can reveal some unusual things such as:

1. The average person (in America) will eat 35,000 cookies in their lifetime.
2. The average person falls asleep in about 7 minutes.
3. The average person is about a 1/4 of an inch taller at night.
4. The average person loses between 40 and 100 strands of hair a day. (That is something I definitely cannot afford to keep doing!)
5. The average person walks the equivalent of twice around the world in their lifetime. (If that isn't a good argument for buying expensive shoes, I don't know what is)
6. An average woman says 7,000 words a day. ( A man - just over 2,000 words)
7. The average person laughs 15 times a day. (Definitely not enough for good mental health.)
   

But this devotion isn't about statistics and interesting facts about the average person. It is something much, much more serious: THE AVERAGE PERSON IS MISSING!!!!

The latest survey found that no-one feels they are "the average person". In fact, in almost every recent survey, the average person believes he or she is better than the average person. Sly And The Family Stone wrote the song Everyday People and end each verse with "I am everyday people". They may be the only average people left in our nation of over 300 million people.

But seriously, Paul wrote this in Romans 12:3

"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought."

When we think of ourselves more highly than we should, we end up in denial about our problems, our weaknesses, and about who we really are. We end up seeing ourselves in a distorted fashion in which we exaggerate our strengths and minimize our shortcomings. And the problem that causes is that we lose an essential ingredient in changing - the ability to see ourselves as we really are. Jeremiah 17:9 says "the heart is deceitful above all things.....who can understand it?" When you stop to think of it, very few unfaithful people think they are unfaithful. Very few gossipers think they gossip. Very few mean-spirited people think they are mean-spirited, you get the idea.

Time after time, we rationalize our behavior, the choices and decisions we make and the way we treat others, rather than acknowledging to the Lord and to ourselves what we are really like. And we end up, just as Paul warned, thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought.

And therein is one reason that the Word of God has to have a significant place in our lives. As we read it, we see ourselves reflected in the words and in the stories and we can begin to make the changes needed to become men and women who can be used to reveal Christ to a lost and dying world.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Listen

Listen

"If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord .......if you pay attention to his commands..." Exodus 15:26

There are certain promises in the Bible that attach a not so easy to do condition that we have to fulfill - listen. The promise in Exodus 15:26 is that we would experience the Lord as Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals us. The condition is that we have to listen carefully to His voice and obey what He commands.

But we know that listening isn't all that easy. One of the fun activities I used to enjoy doing as a principal was playing Simon Says with the students. You remember the game: if the command was preceded by "Simon says" then you had to do it. If there was no "Simon says" before the command and you did it, you were out of the game. There were some students who wouldn't last one minute. Others could do well for a while but they eventually lost concentration and missed a command. And then there were the Simon Says champions. Whether you spoke slow or fast, used your best fakes, tried every form of trickery, they listened and followed the commands.

These students always knew when to move and when to stand still. (Some of you right now are remembering how good, or bad, you were at Simon Says.) What was the difference between the winners and losers - their ability to listen to the instructions being given, to the words being spoken. In the same way, we each need to develop our listening skills. Abraham heard the voice of the angel telling him not to kill Isaac, pretty important, especially if you were Isaac. Elijah heard the still small voice encouraging him and directing his future. And Paul heard the voice of Jesus declaring God's purpose for his life.

Isaiah 30:21 says "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying 'This is the way; walk in it' ". Our ability to hear what God is saying, our skill in listening will have a major impact on our lives. Whether keeping us from making mistakes, or giving direction at crucial times, the voice of the Lord, if we can hear it, will guide our steps. Our job is to learn to block out other voices and distractions so that we can clearly hear the one voice that matters most.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Guiseppe DiPasquale

Guiseppe DiPasquale

Seeing my grandfather's name engraved on the memorial wall at Ellis Island was more moving than I had expected. Maybe that was because it came at the end of touring the island, after reading the accounts of the people who immigrated to America in the late 1800's and early 1900's and realizing what so many, like my grandfather, went through to come to this nation.

During this period of open immigration, men, women and children came by the thousands every day hoping to carve out a better life for themselves and their families. Leaving behind the familiarity of their home countries, Italy, Gerrmany, Greece and many others, they ventured across the Atlantic on freighters and on steamships taking with them only what they could carry. The pictures of them disembarking with their arms full of their belongings (before the days of rolling luggage with telescopic handles) and their immigration papers in their teeth to present to officials painted a picture of a different kind of heroism than we are used to today.

These men and women left behind everything they knew and set out for a country they had never seen before. Most left their father and mother behind, seeing them for the last time. They risked an uncertain future, decisions on where to settle had to be made, jobs had to be found, a place to stay was needed and yet they came, millions in total.

Abraham did something similar, only not by sea, 4,000 years earlier. He left his home in Ur of the Chaldees in response to God's call:

"The Lord said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your people, and
your father's household and go to the land I will show you'." Genesis 12:1

And New Testament history is filled with accounts of people who left all behind to follow the Lord, some moving great distances phyically, and some sacrificing much materially. And still others made choices right where they were, never moving an inch, to forsake all and follow Christ in a walk of faith that at times can be both incredibly difficult and tremendously rewarding.

What's interesting is that the answer to "Why" is the same in both situations. They made a decision to change the course of their lives because of the chance of a better life, one filled with hope for the future, one filled with new opportunities, and despite the risks and hardships they launched out in faith. Immigrant heroes and heroes of faith have more in common than you might think, a courage and a bravery to not settle for the status quo but to go after the life God intended.

By the time I was born, my grandfather was in his 60's, a frail man speaking broken English. He never talked about his journey to America, never mentioned Ellis Island and what he went through when he left Italy behind. This week I've gained another piece of perspective to be thankful for.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Within Range

Within Range

"Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while he is near."

With the colonial troops running out of ammunition in their fight against British forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Colonel William Prescott is said to have made the now famous statement "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." He wanted to be sure that the opposing forces were within range before anyone fired off their precious ammunition. The same scene is repeated in war movies of every kind and in movies such as the recent Pirates of the Caribbean where the mates were told to hold their fire until the other ship was within range of their cannons.

At a Tigers game this year (they lost in 10 innings), we went early to watch a little batting practice. There were probably about 50 people there, crowded by the left field fence, hoping to catch one of the home runs hit into the stands. And then there's the throwing of the bouquet at weddings, with all the single young ladies trying to catch the coveted "you're next" bouquet, hoping to be within range of the beautiful bride's toss.

When I wrote "within range" in my Daytimers last Friday, I was thinking about it in a spiritual sense, being within range of God's blessing, favor and protection. We've been told "Come near to God and He will come near to you" and to "approach the throne of His grace with confidence". In Song of Solomon, the beloved is told that if she didn't know where to go, she should stay close to the shepherd. We each want to be close enough to the Lord to be able to hear His voice, even the still small voice, when He is speaking to us. We each want to be close enough to the Lord to experience His presence and His power in our lives, pressing through like the woman with the issue of blood, to receive a touch from Him.

But we have to face the reality that sin separates us from God. Our own choices and decisions, including the time and effort we put into our relationship with the Lord, have a tremendous impact on our being "within range" of the Lord's blessing on our lives. Is there an area in your life, something you've not yet been able to surrender, that is keeping you out of range of the blessings and benefits of being a son or a daughter of the King? Make the effort to draw closer to the Lord, make whatever adjustments are necessary to put your life "within range" of the blessings of His love.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Already Dead

Already Dead

"In the same way, we count ourselves dead to sin
but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Romans 6:11

The four men were joined together by something they had in common, each having contracted the same incurable, debillitating disease. As they gathered together one evening, they were considering doing something that was very dangerous, even life threatening. As they sat discussing their options, the dim prognosis of their disease factored into their decision. They knew if they succeeded, their would be a definite reward. And if they failed, with the future they faced, they weren't really risking all that much because, to be honest, in some ways they were already dead.

Picture a famine so great that a head of lettuce is selling for $1200, a hamburger pattie for $800 (the bun is extra) and a potato (just one) for $750. The four men we are talking about were four lepers and they lived in the city facing this "great famine".

The story is told in II Kings 6 and 7 and describes a famine so severe that the people faced certain death if something didn't happen soon. The Syrian army was surrounding the city preventing all food from getting in and they planned on staying until the city died of starvation or surrendered.

Out of an entire city of people, the four lepers were the only ones willing to risk their lives by going out of the city and surrendering to the Syrians. Everyone else was worried about saving their lives while these men weren't really concerned with saving their lives. Leoprosy was so contagious that they lived in segregation and there was no cure for the disease they were afflicted with, leaving them without hope for the future.

In some ways, they were already dead and that was their advantage! Anytime we die in an area of life, we become truly free to live. Say for example that a person dies to needing the approval of others. That person becomes free to launch out in faith no matter what the risk of failure is and no matter what others may think. In dying, they become truly free to live. We can die to sin, to our past, to the hold "things" can have over us, to so many areas of life, even to our dreams and goals. And every time we die, we become a little more alive, free to live a life of faith and victory in the Lord. Like the four lepers who saved an entire city from starvation by their actions, we can experience purposeful living like never before.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church