Friday, August 5

Psalm 1:1-2, 6

(1) Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. (2) But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. (6) For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

When I was a young boy, my mother said to me, “Never go anywhere that you cannot take your mother with you.” Reflecting on Psalm 1, I have transferred those words spoken by mother long ago to this modern day axiom: “Never go anywhere with your feet or mind that you would not want to take Jesus with you.”

We are greatly tempted to let our feet or mind wander into the counsel of the wicked. Too often we pray for a crop failure after we have sown seeds of wickedness into the soil of our lives. We must purposely delight daily in the Word of the Lord!

Psalm 37:23-24 reminds us: (23) “If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; (24) though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.”

When you stumble in this life, call upon the Lord for forgiveness and seek the Lord to wrap His everlasting arms around you and hold you up. Faithfully seek Him every day with all your heart!

Prayer

O God, when I become anxious about my life and the world around me, draw me back into your sacred presence. May your peace which truly transcends all understanding guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. AMEN

Pastor Roger Crites

Thursday, August 4

1 John 4:7-12

(7) “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (8) Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (9) This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. (10) This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

(11) Dear friends since God so love us, we also ought to love one another. (12) No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

A friend of mine put up a banner over a booth at a county fair that read, “Love is God.” I know that he was trying to get attention to foster conversations with people as they walked by his booth. However, unless we embrace and are obedient to the love that comes from God, there is no love in us. We only know the love of God when we place our trust in Jesus Christ, as the atoning sacrifice for our sin. Since God so loved us, God desires that we love one another. Colossians 3:13 reminds us that we are to: ”Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

The love of God alone binds us together in unity as the body of Christ. We are then able to demonstrate to the world around us in true love. We are to daily live the words of the chorus: “They will know we are Christians by our love.” What one word would the people who observe your life use to describe you?

Prayer

Thank you O God that you have poured out your love into my heart through your only Son, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I desire that the world around me can see a clear testimony of your love in my life by my words and acts of love today. AMEN

Pastor Roger Crites

Wednesday, August 3

Galatians 5:13-14

(13) “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. (14) The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

When we have confessed our sin in true repentance, we are set free from the penalty of sin. We are ushered into the presence of God with freedom to worship Him alone and serve him with all of our heart and life. What do you do with the freedom and time God has given you? Are your days filled with what makes you happy, or do you seek to be obedient to the purpose and plans God has designed for you? Happiness is overrated! We are to delight in the joy as God offers to fill our lives daily with His blessings.

He has blessed you to be a blessing to the people that He places on your path of life.

Each morning, commit to the Lord your willingness to be obedient through acts of love and kindness to those in your neighborhood, family and at your work. Keep a journal or record of how God is using you each day to bless someone else. In the words of William Carey, “Only one life and soon will pass. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Prayer

O God, regardless of how I feel, I choose to trust and rejoice in you. You alone are the one who will reveal your plan and purpose for my life. I will trust, day by day, in your faithfulness to me. Bless me to be a blessing today. AMEN

Pastor Roger Crites

Tuesday, August 2

Proverbs 3:5-6

(5) “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings; (6) in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

How do you know that you are truly trusting in someone? You only trust in the person that you know and value. How can we trust in God unless we invest time each day to get to know Him? We get to know God like we do the people in our life that we love. We must invest time in learning and knowing the character of the God of the Bible. We cannot trust in a God of our own perception. If we do, then God is limited by our finite human understanding. He is weakened by our human frailty. When we trust in the all powerful God as defined by Scripture, we are given hope that we can rise above our human limits and be delivered into the presence of the all knowing Sovereign God.

How much time have you invested in the presence of God this week? Do you dedicate time for reading His Word and meeting Him in Prayer? Do you delight in the Hope that He alone gives you?

Trusting in God is a daily, life long adventure. Enjoy the journey!

Prayer

Thank you, O God, that you are trustworthy above all others! Forgive me when I take my eyes off of you and focus on the momentary troubles of my life. I ask for your courage and strength to keep my eyes fixed on you, Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. AMEN

Pastor Roger Crites

Monday, August 1

Jeremiah 29:11-13

(11) “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (12) Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. (13) You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Do you realize that God has plans and a purpose for your life? The plans and purpose are not one size fits all! Have you ever bought an item of clothing that was supposed to be “one size fits all” but it did not fit your all? You are created in God’s image and He breathed life into you! When we place our trust in Jesus Christ alone, seek forgiveness for our sins and are adopted into His family, the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts so that we can fulfill God’s purpose and plans for each one of us. They are unique for you!

You cannot realize the plans God has for you until you seek the Lord with all your heart. No half measures! No occasional visits with God. He wants all of you. I know a person who tells me that she attends church to say “Hi” to God. He is not blessed because we decide to occasionally visit him or slip Him our prayer requests. You will only find God when you seek Him with all your heart!

Prayer

O God, help me see in you the hope and healing that you alone offer to all who trust completely in you. I desire to see you as the one true, everlasting God who has mercy on those who seek you with all of their heart. Thank you that you accept me as I come to you, just as I am. Yet, you love me so much that you have more for me than I can imagine. Create within me a true vision of your holiness and your hope as I walk with you by faith. AMEN

Pastor Roger Crites

Friday, July 29

The following video is a collection of images from various cultures and time periods depicting the face of Jesus. While none of us can know what He actually looked like while walked the earth in the flesh, we can know that He had a face. Often He is portrayed as a reflection of the particular culture that is representing Him; the blond haired, blue-eyed Scandinavian Jesus knocking at the door, the clean-shaven, and crowned Jesus of the Renaissance paintings, etc. But the New Testament does not tell us what He looked like. In fact we are given no physical description at all of Jesus, except for this reference from the prophet Isaiah.


He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:2-3


I invite you to take a few moments to watch this video, listen to the words of the song called “King of Glory” by the group Third Day, and praise the name of Jesus! 

                                 (if you are viewing this on Safari you will have to click through to YouTube)

Throughout the week, we have been reflecting on the question that Jesus asked His disciples in Matthew 16, “Who do you say that I am?” It is a profound question and one that has incredible implications for our lives both now and for eternity. Of course in one sense, Jesus is beyond description. As the King of Heaven and Lord of all creation, He is beyond our ability to define or categorize. Nevertheless, He puts the question to all who would follow Him – Who do you say that He is?

Pastor Jeff Frazier

Thursday, July 28

Thursday

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”       - John 14:5-7

Several years ago I was asked to give the invocation at a particular civic event.  This is not an uncommon occurrence for a pastor, but what caught be a little off guard was the fact that this particular group had one specific request.  They asked me not to mention the name Jesus at all during in my prayer.  I was surprised at first and I half jokingly asked them if they knew that I was a Baptist pastor.  The individuals on the committee said that they just wanted a kind of generic prayer and they didn’t want to offend anybody.  I respectfully declined their request and I am sure they found someone else to do it. 

I have often thought about that encounter, and wondered why would someone be offended by the mention of the name Jesus in a prayer?  If you were to walk into a coffee shop discussion and mention god in general, people might have some opinions, but they would not get too worked up.  Even if you brought up the names of Buddha, Mohammed, or the Dali Llama, people are not nearly as likely to have the same kind of reaction as they do to the name Jesus – why? What is it about the name of Jesus that gets such a rise out of people?  Well, for one thing, this is nothing new.  There have been extreme opinions about and reactions to Jesus since He walked the earth.

Jesus is not a controversial figure because He taught about love, or forgiving your enemy, or self-sacrifice.  Many others have taught and proclaimed similar things.  The significance of Jesus is in who He claimed to be! 

Christians have historically affirmed the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. We believe that Jesus is nothing less than the incarnate Son of God in whom the fullness of the Deity dwells in human form; fully divine and fully human—and the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  It is no surprise that most people in the secular culture reject this idea.  However, a surprising number of those who claim to be Christians are not quite so convinced of Jesus' unique nature.  I have even heard some Christian leaders argue that, in the midst of our pluralist and religiously diverse culture, it might be better to ease off the talk about Jesus as exclusively unique.

The fact is, there is a great deal at stake in denying that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

The Way

In the midst of a world teeming with religious diversity, what does it mean to say that Jesus is the Way?  Everybody is looking for the way or the path that is right for him or her, and many are claiming to know what that way is.  Jesus is unique among all other leaders and teachers in that He did say that He knew the way, or that He could show the way, He said that He IS the Way.  It is not popular or politically correct, but Jesus Himself makes it plain that there is no other way, but Him. 

The Truth

What does it mean to say that Jesus is the Truth in a world filled with competing truth claims, as well as people who doubt the very existence of truth? Convoluted and inconclusive speculation about truth has led many to become, like Pontius Pilate, cynical about the very idea —"What is truth?"   According to the Bible, truth is not ultimately to be found in abstract notions or theories, but rather in the person of Jesus Christ, the unique Son of God and the living embodiment of truth. From this perspective, knowing truth depends on being in proper relationship to this one person who is divine truth. Again, Jesus is categorically different from all other prophets, witnesses, and messengers from God.  He did not just know the truth, or teach the truth, He IS the Truth!

The Life

Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came so that we might have the fullness of life, abundant life. Jesus is not just a way we must follow and a truth we must believe, He is an invitation The Life!  To be a Christian means to participate in Life, that is, in Jesus Christ as he participated in the life of the triune God. The fullness of Life in Jesus is found in relationship to the Father through Him. This life is not simply an escape from the divine judgment of death and destruction.  It is not even the promise of getting into heaven someday.  It is the promise of a life lived in fellowship with the God through Jesus right here and now!

If Jesus really is all that He said He is, then how can I agree not to mention His name when I pray?  How can you and I not surrender our very lives to Him and worship as our King and Lord?


Jeff Frazier