I was in the grocery store the other day and I got to contemplating the top of the little tin which held the black spice known as pepper. I discovered it had three openings and that I could select any one of them, depending on the amount of powder I wanted to dispense. They were labeled, "Lift to Sift," "Lift to Spoon," and "Lift to Pour."
Continuing my investigation, I pried open the first to reveal a dozen or so tiny perforations which would permit a fine sprinkling of pepper to escape. The second flap covered a hole just barely large enough for about a quarter-teaspoon scoop. under the third cover, however, I found a gaping mouth from which the pepper would pour like Niagra Falls!
And I thought of 2 Kings 13:14-20.
No, really! In that chapter of the Bible, Elisha the prophet is about to die. King Joash of Israel comes to see him, and the seer tells the sovereign to take some arrows and "smite" the ground (when you are the King, I suppose you don't just "hit" or "beat" things). It seems like an odd request, but his majesty takes three smacks at the floor just to humor the old guy. But it isn't humerous to Elisha. He becomes "wroth" (which is King James English for really ticked off) and Elisha tells King Joash that each smack with the arrows gained a victory over the Syrians, Israel's chief enemy. Because Joash only hit the arrows against the ground three times, instead of wiping Syria out, God's people would now win only three battles.
Poor dumb Joash. When he really needed "Lift to Pour," he settled for "Lift to Sift."
I wonder what setting ("Lift to Sift," "Lift to Spoon," or "Lift to Pour") is on our own Christian walk? Are we "Lift to Sift" Christians, happy with a powder-puff victory now and then, or are we "Lift to Pour" Saints who want to bury ourselves in the blessings of our Heavenly Father? We know His desire for us and we only need to surrender our will and desires to Him to have the best (Psalm 84:11; Romans 12:1,2)! Let's open the spout where God's blessings come out and learn to live in the zest of a well-spiced Christian walk!
'Tis The Seasoning,
Pastor David Blevins
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
I'm Excited About Jesus!
It seems very hard to believe that the month of December will soon be over and we will soon be starting into 2012! It does seem to me that the older I get, the quicker time flies by. As a matter of fact, today (December 22nd) is my 38th spiritual birthday! It was on December 22, 1973 that I trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord of my life. That was and is the greatest decision that I have ever made in my life! I have never regretted giving my heart and life to Jesus Christ and never will. It also just seems like yesterday that I began my gospel ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ when I was only 18 years old (I preached my first message in April of 1974). And now, it has been almost 37 3/4 years!
The rapid passing of time reminds me of what James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote in James 4:14, "...For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." The NIV says, "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." My dear beloved friends, it should be our heart's desire to make every moment count for Jesus Christ! We should live with an eternal perspective, realizing that this life will soon be over and we who are saved will live in the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords forever and ever! What a glorious and everlasting joy that will be! I would say to you that based upon the brevity of time, if we are going to do anything for Jesus, we need to do it quickly! What a privilege to know and serve Jesus Christ, the One who saved us for time and eternity! Glory to God!
The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful Christian wife, Randi, whom I love with all of my heart. Thank you for the wonderful life we have had together, Randi! God has gifted us with two great children, Bethany and Rusty. They are the joy of their Dad's heart. I am also very proud of my new son-in-law, Brandon. He is a great Christian young man and he is soooo good to our daughter. We (Randi and I) are patiently waiting for grand-children so that we can spoil them rotten and send them home on a sugar high as revenge against our children for when they were little!
Please let me close by telling the members of Clover Hill Baptist Church that I count it a great privilege to be your Pastor. Thank you for your prayers for me (and my family) and your support of my spiritual leadership. I sincerely look forward to what the Lord Jesus Christ has in store for us in 2012!
I'm Excited About Jesus!
Pastor David Blevins
The rapid passing of time reminds me of what James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote in James 4:14, "...For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." The NIV says, "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." My dear beloved friends, it should be our heart's desire to make every moment count for Jesus Christ! We should live with an eternal perspective, realizing that this life will soon be over and we who are saved will live in the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords forever and ever! What a glorious and everlasting joy that will be! I would say to you that based upon the brevity of time, if we are going to do anything for Jesus, we need to do it quickly! What a privilege to know and serve Jesus Christ, the One who saved us for time and eternity! Glory to God!
The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful Christian wife, Randi, whom I love with all of my heart. Thank you for the wonderful life we have had together, Randi! God has gifted us with two great children, Bethany and Rusty. They are the joy of their Dad's heart. I am also very proud of my new son-in-law, Brandon. He is a great Christian young man and he is soooo good to our daughter. We (Randi and I) are patiently waiting for grand-children so that we can spoil them rotten and send them home on a sugar high as revenge against our children for when they were little!
Please let me close by telling the members of Clover Hill Baptist Church that I count it a great privilege to be your Pastor. Thank you for your prayers for me (and my family) and your support of my spiritual leadership. I sincerely look forward to what the Lord Jesus Christ has in store for us in 2012!
I'm Excited About Jesus!
Pastor David Blevins
Monday, December 19, 2011
I'll Be Home For Christmas
Christmas is really going to cost you this year, especially if you are a traditionalist. According to Jim Dunigan, managing executive for PNC Wealth Management (affiliated with Provident National Bank in Philadelphia), a person wishing to give his true love the standard "Twelve Days of Christmas" assortment (one set of each verse in the song) is looking at a total bill of $24,263! I am also sure that it will come as a huge surprise to all of the many "tekkies" out there that shopping on line will not bring you any kind of a bargain price. As a matter of fact, it will cost you almost $40,000 to buy the same gifts on line! Why is that? Because of the high cost to ship live birds.
The reason? Well, don't blame the partridge, which remains the cheapest item at $15. Maids-a-milking have a weak union, so you can still get them for minimum wage, however piping and drumming are on the rise. Behind the Christmas inflation were three factors: 1. The price of swans doubled from last year to a whopping $6,300. 2. It seems that the Philadelphia Dance Company rents its lords and ladies by the hour, so all that leaping and dancing drove the cost to a 50% increase. 3. The obvious arch-villain is the five golden rings, since the price of gold has doubled since 2008.
If all that isn't bad enough, it must be pointed out that this total is for the twelfth day only! If you figure all the repeat gifts, you end up with a bill for $101,119.84! Ho, Ho, Ho!
But if you think Christmas really costs you and me, stop for a minute to think what the first Christmas, the real Christmas, cost the Ones who really gave.
Of course, it cost the Heavenly Father His only Son. But did you ever stop to think that this was also true in reverse? Bethlehem, or Nazareth for that matter, wasn't any bargain even by earthly standards, and yet Jesus traded His seat at the right hand of the Father for it. And before you tell me that you won't be at church the Sunday's around Christmas because you want to spend the holidays with your family, consider that Jesus Christ, the reason for this season, lived on this Earth for over thirty-three years and never spent a single December 25th with His Father! That sort of puts the whole thing in perspective, doesn't it? Especially when you remember that no gifts were exchanged under a brightly lit tree during His life on Earth. If we are really celebrating the birth (day) of Jesus Christ, why are we the only ones getting the presents?
So go easy on the plastic credit cards this year, and lavishly give the same gift that God gave to us that first Christmas: "A Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Be quick to tell others why Jesus really came to this world (Luke 19:10).
"I'll Be Home For Christmas",
Pastor David Blevins
The reason? Well, don't blame the partridge, which remains the cheapest item at $15. Maids-a-milking have a weak union, so you can still get them for minimum wage, however piping and drumming are on the rise. Behind the Christmas inflation were three factors: 1. The price of swans doubled from last year to a whopping $6,300. 2. It seems that the Philadelphia Dance Company rents its lords and ladies by the hour, so all that leaping and dancing drove the cost to a 50% increase. 3. The obvious arch-villain is the five golden rings, since the price of gold has doubled since 2008.
If all that isn't bad enough, it must be pointed out that this total is for the twelfth day only! If you figure all the repeat gifts, you end up with a bill for $101,119.84! Ho, Ho, Ho!
But if you think Christmas really costs you and me, stop for a minute to think what the first Christmas, the real Christmas, cost the Ones who really gave.
Of course, it cost the Heavenly Father His only Son. But did you ever stop to think that this was also true in reverse? Bethlehem, or Nazareth for that matter, wasn't any bargain even by earthly standards, and yet Jesus traded His seat at the right hand of the Father for it. And before you tell me that you won't be at church the Sunday's around Christmas because you want to spend the holidays with your family, consider that Jesus Christ, the reason for this season, lived on this Earth for over thirty-three years and never spent a single December 25th with His Father! That sort of puts the whole thing in perspective, doesn't it? Especially when you remember that no gifts were exchanged under a brightly lit tree during His life on Earth. If we are really celebrating the birth (day) of Jesus Christ, why are we the only ones getting the presents?
So go easy on the plastic credit cards this year, and lavishly give the same gift that God gave to us that first Christmas: "A Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Be quick to tell others why Jesus really came to this world (Luke 19:10).
"I'll Be Home For Christmas",
Pastor David Blevins
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Attractively Yours
It has been a while since I finished reading Dr. Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History Of Time; however, I can tell you that his book finished with me well before I was done with it!
Yes, I will freely admit that the famous British theoretical physicist's "simplified" explanation of black holes, quantum theory, and E=MC squared left me flailing for one non-mathematical shred of reality on which to rest my weary (or was that weird?) mind. Still, I did manage to rise from the Euclidean ooze on brief occasions, struggling to the surface long enough to grasp a few simple concepts.
One of these moments taught me a valuable lesson about the true nature of power. It seems that there are four physical forces in the universe, excluding Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Harrison Ford. They are: gravity, electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and strong nuclear. Listen, this is great stuff to keep in mind when balancing your checkbook or making out a grocery shopping list! At any rate, gravity is the weakest of the four. Oddly enough, however, it is also the one that exerts the most influence in our daily lives. It makes certain that our cars will stay where we park them, keeps the Earth going around the Sun, and provides enough friction between our feet and terra firma to allow walking.
How is it you may ask (you very well may not ask, but I will tell you anyway), that the weakest force in the universe is the most prominent? For two reasons: first of all, gravity has the ability to act over large distances; secondly, it is always attractive in nature. That is to say, each particle in the mass of the Earth pulls in the same direction; gravity never fights itself.
...And now, class,we come to the point of our lesson: one does not need a lot of power; one simply needs to exert the power over long distances, and to see that everyone pulls together!
The secrets of Outer Space befuddle me, but I think that I may have some insight here into the inner workings of the Body of Christ. As the Apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 1:26-29, 31 God has never made a habit of finding the strongest, smartest, and most talented people to be His servants. Yet, the true church of Jesus Christ, despit its weakness, can be the most potent force on the face of this planet. All we have to do is commit ourselves to spreading the Gospel over any distance, across oceans or across the street, and see to it that we all pull in the same direction (I Cor. 1:10)!
Because the other three forces in the universe sometimes cause particles to pull against one another, they tend to cancel themselves out. God grant us the spiritual wisdom to remember that our calling is not to push ourselves away from each other in the church, but to pull those who are on the outside to Jesus John 12:32; (2 Cor. 3:2,3).
If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, a word of warning: none of the Christians you may know may be very powerful, but there are plenty of us, and we are all pulling for you to come to Jesus Christ for salvation! Let go, and fall upward into the eternal pull of the gravity of God's love for you!
Attractively Yours,
Pastor David Blevins
Yes, I will freely admit that the famous British theoretical physicist's "simplified" explanation of black holes, quantum theory, and E=MC squared left me flailing for one non-mathematical shred of reality on which to rest my weary (or was that weird?) mind. Still, I did manage to rise from the Euclidean ooze on brief occasions, struggling to the surface long enough to grasp a few simple concepts.
One of these moments taught me a valuable lesson about the true nature of power. It seems that there are four physical forces in the universe, excluding Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Harrison Ford. They are: gravity, electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and strong nuclear. Listen, this is great stuff to keep in mind when balancing your checkbook or making out a grocery shopping list! At any rate, gravity is the weakest of the four. Oddly enough, however, it is also the one that exerts the most influence in our daily lives. It makes certain that our cars will stay where we park them, keeps the Earth going around the Sun, and provides enough friction between our feet and terra firma to allow walking.
How is it you may ask (you very well may not ask, but I will tell you anyway), that the weakest force in the universe is the most prominent? For two reasons: first of all, gravity has the ability to act over large distances; secondly, it is always attractive in nature. That is to say, each particle in the mass of the Earth pulls in the same direction; gravity never fights itself.
...And now, class,we come to the point of our lesson: one does not need a lot of power; one simply needs to exert the power over long distances, and to see that everyone pulls together!
The secrets of Outer Space befuddle me, but I think that I may have some insight here into the inner workings of the Body of Christ. As the Apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 1:26-29, 31 God has never made a habit of finding the strongest, smartest, and most talented people to be His servants. Yet, the true church of Jesus Christ, despit its weakness, can be the most potent force on the face of this planet. All we have to do is commit ourselves to spreading the Gospel over any distance, across oceans or across the street, and see to it that we all pull in the same direction (I Cor. 1:10)!
Because the other three forces in the universe sometimes cause particles to pull against one another, they tend to cancel themselves out. God grant us the spiritual wisdom to remember that our calling is not to push ourselves away from each other in the church, but to pull those who are on the outside to Jesus John 12:32; (2 Cor. 3:2,3).
If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, a word of warning: none of the Christians you may know may be very powerful, but there are plenty of us, and we are all pulling for you to come to Jesus Christ for salvation! Let go, and fall upward into the eternal pull of the gravity of God's love for you!
Attractively Yours,
Pastor David Blevins
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