Changing Seasons

By Gillis Killam –

 

We had a long winter this year in Canada. Spring was slow in coming. It seems that summer will never come! People complained on the internet, TV, in the stores, at home and on the streets.  Climatologists tell us our climate is changing and we should expect troubled times ahead.

But God has said that as long as the earth remains, these seasons will happen regardless of what the environmentalists tell us.  Genesis 8:22 states that the seasons will continue to come in their order.

We all like the summer season because it’s a time of pleasure, holidays, travel and experiencing the great scenery that God created. There are spiritual seasons in our lives as well, and we all go through fall, winter, spring and summer where we experience changes that challenge our lives.

No matter how we complain about the weather, it does nothing to change it. We have to cope with it no matter what the season. So it is with spiritual seasons that bring us tough and bitter experiences: cold as well as warm times. When we face storms in our lives we need to prepare ourselves to stand firm. In arid times when there are dry spiritual seasons in our lives, we must draw upon the resources of the spring of life in Christ. In times of tragedy or the loss of a loved one we need to take comfort from the God of all comfort.

The word of God is for all seasons. Paul told Timothy to “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2 NIV). No matter what season we may be going through, God’s word will give wisdom, encouragement, comfort and direction. Paul told his disciple Timothy that the Bible is the source from which we can draw what we need (2 Timothy 3:16).

Jesus told His disciples that the times and seasons, whether future or present are in His hands (Acts 1:7).

The Apostle Peter said we are to be ready at all times to give an answer for the hope that is within us (1Peter 3:15).  God said he would never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

In a world filled with hopelessness we need to sow seeds of hope in the lives of others; no matter what season we may be experiencing.

Prayer: O God, help me draw upon your strength and comfort not matter what season I face in the future. AMEN

 

Loneliness

By Gillis Killam –

 

I recently read that Yvette Vickers, Playboy playmate and B-movie star, was found in her house dead. She had died about a year before anyone found her. Her body was mummified near a heater that was running. Her computer was still on.

Although she had a wide audience of “friends,” no one was there when she died. This was a sad lonely person who apparently died alone.

According to recent studies we are more connected than any other generation, and yet we are even more isolated from each other. Some experts tell us that it is not isolation, but loneliness that is increasing the suicide problem of our times.

Stories are surfacing now about people with a wide array of followers on the internet who call themselves “real friends”, but find that wealth and public notoriety do not equal happiness. More and more people who have many followers on Facebook, Twitter, and other communication programs are said to be the loneliest people around.

Think of the accessibility we have to each other through our computers on the internet, Facebook, Twitter, Email, and Skype, where we can be in contact with people almost instantly; and yet we are in the midst of one of the loneliest generations that has ever lived.

In spite of the new technology, we long to have meaningful relationships with each other, but somehow it is not happening. We need each other. God said of Adam before Eve was created, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). We can be in a group, or a crowd of people, and still feel alone.

When God wanted talk to us he didn’t just send us an Email, a Tweet, or a Facebook message; He came to us in the person of Christ to live where we live, walk where we walk, and sit where we sit.  Jesus comes to us even today as the Son of God seeks us. He knocks on the door of our hearts and asks to come in and live in us (Revelation 3:20). All we have to do is open the door of our lives and invite Him to come in. The basic need we all have is for a relationship with our Creator God.

Prayer: Oh God, thank you for your abiding presence!

Going Home

By Gillis Killam –

 

Not long ago my youngest sister went home to be with the Lord. I thought about what it means for a Christian to die.

Dying to the Christian is like going home. If you had a home anything like mine, you would have always loved to go home, justas a child at the end of the day, and later as an adult if I had been somewhere far away. I looked forward to coming home to a warm house, a loving father and mother, brothers and sisters who cared for me. Our journey on earth is the same. Even our spiritual journey is spoken of as coming home to the Saviour.

When Jesus portrayed our straying from God the Father He told the parable of The Prodigal Son, which is a picture of our coming home to God, our Father.

It means to be accepted.

The Bible makes it very clear that our coming to Jesus Christ is coming home to our Father.(2 Corinthians 5:6-9) God is calling all of us home.

At home I didn’t need to knock; I didn’t have to try to be like someone else. I just belonged! I was accepted! How can we really be sure of acceptance into God’s home? John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—” (NIV).

It means to have a place that is home (John 14:1-3).

When we personally receive Jesus as our Saviour, we take our place in the great family of God as described by the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 3:14).

Going home to heaven means never to leave. “And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 NIV).

The Psalmist wrote, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6 NIV).

The bane of this life is that we fear the day when good things, good relationships, and good times will end. But for a Christian, life with God will never end (Psalm 16:11).

One day our journey on earth will be over. Are we ready to go home?

Prayer: Thank you Lord that you have gone to prepare a place for us and we will one day enter into our new home.

This Old House

By Gillis Killam –

 

While traveling with a friend, on a rural road we saw an abandoned house where someone had once lived. It was now weather beaten with broken windows and unmown grass. Looking at the house my friend said, “Gil, if those old walls could talk they would tell quite a story!”

I have reflected on that statement many times since, and thought how fleeting is life, and then recall the Psalmist’s words, “Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—they are like the new grass of the morning: ⁶ In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered” (Psalm 90:5-6 NIV).

And also “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10 NIV).

Stuart Hamblen composed this song, looking forward to leaving this house:

“This old house once knew my children This old house once knew my wife This old house was home and shelter as we fought the storms of life This old house once rang with laughter This old house heard many shouts Now she trembles in the darkness when the lightnin’ walks about.”

He concludes with the chorus:

“Ain’t gonna need this house no longer I’m getting ready to meet the saints.” (Stuart Hamblen)

We don’t know what went on in the house mentioned above. It could have housed a family where joy and laughter reigned, or there could have been many heartaches and disappointments.  God knows, and this Psalm makes it clear that this life is temporary, and we should be ready to meet the Lord.

Jesus came to bring life not death. He didn’t deny the sorrow that it brings now, but He said what no other person could say, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25 NIV). It is a pain that remains now, but He says that we may die physically, but if we believe in Jesus we will live forever in the resurrection of the righteous.

Prayer: Help me O Lord, to focus on that glorious day when the last enemy of mankind is vanquished, because you have conquered death, hell, and the grave. AMEN

The God of Abundance

By Gillis Killam –

 

Some people think that God is a tight-fisted, penny-pinching and miserly God.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Someone put it this way: when God made prairies, He made miles and miles of them; when He made the mountains, He made many and gigantic; when he made the ocean he made a vast abundance of water; when he made the trees He made an abundance of forests; when He made people he made multitudes; when He made provision for our salvation He paid the highest price and brought abundant salvation.

In fact, all that God does is in abundance. Jesus didn’t come to earth to make us miserable, but to give the abundance of a full life.

Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10 NIV).

God’s abundant grace and mercy helps us to meet life’s needs no matter what they may be; so we need not worry because provision is plentiful.

I think we limit God by obsessing about what might happen in the future, when we should appreciate a God who never skimps in His provision. His supply will be more than enough. We should not worry! He said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25 NIV).

Paul once wrote, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever” (Ephesians 3:20-21 NKJV).

No matter what our lot in life, God is able to make all grace abound toward us.  When we think we can’t carry on under the burdens of life, His unfailing grace and provision is poured out on us.

Not only does God give a copious supply, He intends that we not be stingy. He said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over” (Luke 6:38 NIV).

Prayer: Thank you Heavenly Father for your abundant supply in my life.

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