Premature Season Change

By Cynthia Ruchti –

As I write this, I’m surrounded by the wonder of a warm autumn day, one that smells like toasted summer. The autumn light spotlights the bright colors of the autumn trees and autumn-crisped grasses, perfuming the autumn air with that mellow, smooth, ripe fragrance of cottonwood at its peak and rusty pine needles, of apples begging for picking and tomato plants giving up their last fruits of harvest.

By the time you read this, few places this far north will have leaves on the trees. The staccato dance of color and rustle will have given way to the rattle of bare boned branches against one another, brown against a gray November sky.

Autumn seems too short of a season, most years. And sometimes that’s my fault. I cheat it of its shelf life, because I know what’s coming–winter.

Winter–not my favorite time of year, living in this land of ice and cold, snow and blizzards, closed roads and colorlessness; unless you count white as a color.

Winter–the season that seems endless, its days short and bone-chilling.

Autumn, on the other hand, calls for sweatshirts and long hikes through the opening woods, for s’mores over the campfire and quilt cocoons, great sleeping weather with the windows open and the down comforters piled high, pumpkins and earthtone decorations and Thanksgiving and putting up the garden’s produce.

But I hesitate in autumn, never taking a full breath, because I know what the season right behind it will demand.

A cancer patient in remission might fail to take a full breath, knowing she’ll have another biopsy six months or a year from now. A parent of a pre-teen might miss some of the beauty because of a premature, imagined chill still years distant. A marriage might suffer from a similar syndrome: “We made it through that crisis, but there’s bound to be another one ahead”.

When God said through Solomon that there was a season for everything (Ecclesiastes 3), I wonder if He also was telling us not to cheat the season we’re in. To plan for, but not pre-live, the crises of the next or opposite season.

“Don’t you be talking when it’s the season to be silent,” He might rephrase that instruction. “Don’t feel loss when it’s the season of gain. Don’t pre-worry about a season of death and miss the season of living.”

PRAYER: Father God, why should thoughts of an icy wind trouble me on a day like today when the sun is blindingly bright against the yellow leaves, the breeze merely cool, not cold? So fill my sense with this present moment that I don’t miss Your Presence in it!

“There’s a season for everything and a time for every matter under the heavens” (Ecclesiastes 3:1 CEB).

The Will of the Father

By Elaine James –

While sitting at a Senior Choral practice a frail elderly gentleman turned to me and asked, “What is the will of God for your life?”

I wondered how to respond to this kind man. To me it is a loaded question with many possible answers, but I chose to respond “to be a child of Jesus.”

He blinked and gently spoke, “First Thessalonians 5:16-22: rejoice always, pray constantly and give thanks under all circumstances. Know the love of God. Don’t despise prophesying. Test all things. Do well. Refrain from sin. Reach out to Jesus.”

I can only imagine that you have found yourself in similar situations where you weren’t sure what to do or say either. People may have been asking you “Do you believe God exists?” “Who is Jesus and what does he mean to you?” or, “How do you live out the will of the Father?”
Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I rejoice always?
2. Do I pray continually?
3. Do I give thanks under all circumstances?
4. Do I know the love of God?
5. Do I test all things?
6. Do I refrain from sin?

Our answers just need to be honest. God is not grading us. He reminds us gently what His will is for our lives. He is not forcing His will onto us. He loves us and gently guides us. He wants us to do well this side of heaven.

What would happen in our churches if all of us began to model the will of our Father in heaven?

PRAYER: Father give me the courage to examine this checklist. Help me to be honest and desire to live out the will You have for my life. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

The Twist

By Cheri Cowell –

Call it good parenting. Call it bribery. But all of us have done it.

We have several more errands to run and the children are getting restless. So, we offer to take them to the park, stop for Happy Meals, or allow them to choose the movie that night “if they will help get these last few errands done.”

If you will…then I will… God uses this same parenting technique with us, but His comes with a twist.

Today’s passage is often quoted to make the point that God set up this “if you will do this” (humble yourselves and turn from evil) then God will forgive and heal the land.

Some say that because we have not humbled ourselves and have turned from evil, God is withholding His forgiveness and blessing. What this explanation leaves out is that throughout history we’ve repeatedly not held up our end of the bargain, and yet, God still sent Jesus.

Jesus is the twist. He rewrites this parenting technique to say, even if you don’t, I will still forgive and shower you with blessings.

“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV).

Prayer: God, You are to be praised for being the ultimate parent who, although maintaining the “if you will” goal, steps in with a twist—the twist of grace. Help me see Your grace as reason to fulfill my end of the bargain.

Happy New You

By Judy Davis –

At the beginning of this year I felt God speaking to my heart about writing a new book. I started writing in January. When God speaks we must be sensitive to hear His voice and be obedient to His divine direction.
Sometimes it’s not easy to step out in faith. It takes discipline, perseverance, endurance, and work. But when God asks us to do something, we can do it in His strength. We certainly need to pray and seek Godly counsel daily in every area of our lives.

Are you pressing forward in the things Jesus has placed on your heart to do? Keep moving forward and let nothing stop you. God wants to meet us right where we are. Learn to see how He works in the details of our daily lives. His promises are as real today as they were when the Word was written. He is still able to meet us at our point of need today as yesterday.

This week my husband and I celebrated our 47th wedding anniversary. Our marriage has not been perfect but we know God has been there through the good and bad times. We both are forever thankful for these years he has given to us.

Recently I told my youngest son, “The hardest and most important job we do is raising our children.”

Mr. John Rosemond, a minister, was asked, “What is the biggest mistake parents make?”

He stated, “They pay entirely too much attention to and do entirely too much for their children. These children usually, but not always, end up as spoiled brats. On the other hand, some parents’ biggest mistakes are that they pay entirely too little attention to their kids.” Again, we must do the best we can with God’s divine guidance.

Remember, nothing in life is easy. Whether it is writing a manuscript, being married, or raising a family, we must depend on our faith in God. My book Happy New You, a 365-day devotional on reading the Bible through will be finished this month. To God be the glory for He has helped me every step of the way.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, what a mighty God we serve. Help us to do the best we can in all we do so our lives may glorify you.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24 NIV).

Danger Lurks in Paradise

By Peter Lundell –

Danger lurks in paradise. Kim and I were sent to speak at a Pastors’ retreat in Honolulu. So of course I had to swim at Waikiki Beach. The water was warm and clear blue. But below were patches of exposed lava. I smashed my toes black-and-blue, cut-and-bleeding. At least I didn’t break them. Underneath the post-card-perfect-most-famous-beach-on-earth lie rocks that wait to injure swimmers.

When people on the mainland hear the word “Hawaii,” they think vacation heaven and say, “O-o-o-o-o-h.” Indeed it is for tourists. But for more than a million people who live there, it is much like anywhere else, or more so.

Housing, cars, food, merchandise, and almost everything else costs more there than anywhere else you’d like to live. The pastors I met frequently deal with greater financial, cultural, and social challenges than those on the mainland. And people in Hawaii have such an easygoing culture that pastors have a hard time motivating them.

Everyone still loves the place—it truly is wonderful. But when we see beyond the veneer of the tourist industry, we find that in daily life, Hawaii is a rough and tumble place like any other.

We humans tend to idealize. We want things to match our imaginations and fantasies, whether vacation spots, careers, or people we fall in love with and marry. But we always find that a more difficult reality awaits anyone who sticks around.

Think about how much that happens in your life.

People can be the same way about God and faith. But anyone serious about it will find that following Jesus includes more than just being loved and forgiven. He leads us into facing ourselves and changing, and also embracing the pain of others.

But even at that rough-and-tumble level we come to know a deeper beauty than we could have known on the surface.

“Lord, sometimes my eyes only see what they like. Teach me to see as you see. Deepen my heart and mind to embrace the hard things in life—and then to find and appreciate the blessings from them.”

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? . . . No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:7, 11 NIV).

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