Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
April 24, 2024
Psalm 28:1-2, 6-7

Most days I seem to go along singing a song and finding more and more blessings to count. Other days I find myself struggling to help people who call on me to assist them in some very troubling situations. It might be a financial crisis, a rough living situation, a bad health report, and even news of the passing of a loved one. Even though I know that nothing can happen that God can’t see us through, and even though I have seen miracles and acts of mercy that are most assuredly God’s handiwork, I still sometimes feel helpless to help.

Just about the time I was going to post my new saying for this year which is; “Every day I’m gonna find a way to say Hallelujah anyway”, I heard a song by Amy Grant that turned me around. The title of the song is Better than a Hallelujah and the refrain goes something like this; “We pour out our misery, God just hears a melody, Beautiful the mess we are, honest prayers of a breaking heart Are better than a hallelujah”.

In the verses of the song, Amy sings about different people in different situations crying out to God and at the end of each line she sings that it’s “better than a hallelujah sometimes” (emphasis, mine). There’s the key for me “sometimes”. I think David’s Psalm 28 reflects this too; “To you I call, o Lord my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit. Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place”. Then, after pouring out his heart, he is comforted and finds direction; “Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.”

If you find yourself dealing with “one of those days” that things feel very dark and, like a friend said the other day, “I haven’t seen beautiful in a long time”, don’t give up. Do as Amy Grant suggests: Pour out your misery and know that God hears your desperate cry and is more than ready to guide you through. Admitting that you are hurting is not weakness to God, it is a melody of dependence on Him.

Amen!

Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
April 17, 2024
Habakkuk 2:4

I have gotten into a habit of writing interesting quotes and scripture passages down on little 3X5 cards and placing them around the house. Every now and then I pick up something off a table, my desk or even the kitchen counter and out pops a card. That happened to me the other evening while sprucing up the kitchen. Here’s what I read on the card; “Make sure your servants towel is bigger than your ego”, and “Ego is the anesthetic that deadens the pain of stupidity” (ouch). When I turned the card over, I had written a quote from the prophet Habakkuk; “See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright - but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness”.

How can we make sure we are not arrogant, or puffed up? One way that saved me the other day was to stop and ask myself if I was Edging God Out? In other words; was what I was about to say or do moving past my asking for God’s direction first and just going with what I wanted at the time? Recently, I have found myself in situations where my way of doing things was challenged and I initially wanted to say; “I’ve had more experience at this than you have, so just deal with it”. Thank the Lord that I took a breath and felt the Holy Spirit tell me to “zip it” and simply listen to the suggestions being made. Funny, how I can learn something new, if I am willing to listen.

Our passage for today’s meditation comes from a conversation between the prophet Habakkuk and God. It seems the prophet was growing impatient with God concerning the disciplining of the leaders of Judah who were oppressing the poor. The conversation starts out in chapter 1 verses 2 and following, here is an excerpt; “How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you ‘Violence’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?”

Can’t you feel the desperation of the prophet as you read those words? I feel it often when I catch a news story about yet another person with power and authority abusing and neglecting those entrusted to them. I feel it when someone calls me on the phone and just keeps repeating the word; “I just don’t get it, I just don’t get it, why doesn’t someone stop the killing?” I feel it when someone says “If God is good all the time, why does it hurt so much?”

Maybe you are getting a bit impatient with God. Trust me, you are in good company, even the disciples felt that way and they were in the presence or God incarnate. Don’t allow yourself to feel less faithful if you question God. The point is, stay in the conversation with God. Listen and let the Holy Spirit get you through one second, then one minute, then one step at a time.

Amen!

Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
April 10, 2024
2 Corinthians 12:9 and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I have been blessed to be asked to officiate a wedding of a sweet young couple from my church. In preparation for their marriage, I found a wonderful marriage counseling guide in a book entitled Six Gospel Commitments Every Couple Needs To Make by Paul David Tripp. In chapter 16 I found a wonderful quote for all relationships, and I hope you will find it encouraging and challenging at the same time; “This side of heaven, we will never graduate from the school of Grace”. That is something I need to repeat to myself every day. Isn’t it easy to allow our emotions and our pride to move first instead of going to our wonderful God of grace and mercy? 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us; “Rejoice in the Lord always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”. Pretty tall order I think, but, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I know life will be much more peaceful and I can be a brighter light for the Kingdom if I will endeavor to follow this instruction. The Apostle Paul, again, writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that God told him; “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. It’s all about grace, God’s grace. Grace, He extends to us so we can do the same for others. It’s an everyday challenge. Dr. Tripp puts it this way; “Every day the fallen world, in all it’s brokenness, presses in on us and makes life more difficult and complicated than it was originally designed to be. Every day we are called to fight what is wrong and give ourselves to what is right. Every day we are called to humbly examine ourselves and to commit ourselves to change. Every day there is some issue for which we need the insight of biblical wisdom. Every day we must surrender what we want to the better agenda of what God has commanded. Every day we are called to love each other in ways that are practical and specific. Every day we are called to love when the other person doesn’t deserve it. Every day we need to look for ways to communicate encouragement, appreciation, and respect…”.

So, when you find yourself today and everyday struggling to learn and apply God’s grace, perhaps a song could help you along, it helps me; “Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that is greater than all our sin” (Grace Greater than our Sin; “Sing To The Lord” 1993 hymnal pg 84).

Amen!

Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
April 3, 2024
Acts 1:1-11

After Jesus’ resurrection, he appeared to many in his physical body for a period of 40 days. (Interesting how the number 40 is so significant and connectional; 40 days and nights Noah and his family float in the boat, 40 years Moses leads the people through the wilderness, 40 days for Jesus to deal with temptation, and now after his resurrection, for 40 days Jesus makes several appearances to his disciples. As Dr. Henry Halley writes; “to banish forever from their minds any doubt as to His continued existence as a living person. What a wonderful experience in those 40 days, to have thus seen, talked with, eaten with, and felt with their hands, Jesus in His actual crucified and glorified body, as He appeared and disappeared, through closed doors out of nowhere and back into the nowhere, all climaxed, as, with the blessing of His uplifted hands, He rose, gradually, up and up, and disappeared in the clouds”(Halley’s Bible Handbook 1965 edition, pg. 560).

Verses 10-11, of our text in the book of Acts, tells us that the disciples were staring up into the sky where they, saw with their own eyes, Jesus ascending into the clouds. It was there and then that two men dressed in white suddenly stood beside them. This must have been shocking, to say the least, that while the disciples were gazing into the cloud where Jesus disappears, so much like a child watching their Daddy drive away for a long trip, two guys show up. I wonder if these were the same two guys that met the women at the empty tomb in Luke 24:4; “While they were wondering about this [who would roll the stone away], suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening stood beside them”.

I don’t know about you, but I am not fond of being surprised, though I do love a good game of hide and seek. I can just imagine, how jumpy the disciples, men and women, would be at such times like they were experiencing. At the empty tomb, mourning the loss of one they loved so much and had hoped would free them for the corrupt government they lived under. On hill, after a glorious 40 days of sporadic visits with Jesus, and now, Surprise! Two guys stand with them and tell them they will see him again, but when? Isn’t that what people are asking still? When will Jesus return? Maybe we missed it, maybe we’ve neglected Him so much He decided not to return? Let me reassure you, just at the two guys did for the disciples; “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven”. The apostle John writes; “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, sys the Lord God, who is, and who was and who is to come, The Almighty’”(Revelation 1:7-8).

So, what should we do while we wait? Love Him more and more every day, and look for ways to love others into the Kingdom of God. We just might surprise the world.

Amen!

Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
March 27, 2024
John 13:33 + 37-38

Here we are in the middle of Holy Week and I am anticipating a wonderful Easter celebration. I am conscious though, that I should not move to quickly to the empty tomb without spending this time remembering the price Jesus paid for my sin. It is hard for me to think about such physical abuse as my Savior endured. It is hard for me to be still and allow myself to hear the cries for the pain my sin caused him. It is hard for me to bring a message to hurting people about the hurt sin brings, and even harder to bring that message to people who seemingly, aren’t hurting at all. So today, I am asking myself; Do I love to tell the story, the whole story? I want to.

Today, I am looking at the story of Peter’s denial of Christ. It must have even surprised Peter that he could do such a thing. Here, he had devoted himself fully to the Lord and often was the first to speak up, step up, and yes, even step in. Then something happens, he couldn’t wrap his mind around, and, well, he does exactly what Jesus said he would do: “Will you really lay your life down for me? I tell you the truth before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!”

A Sunday school lesson I recently read about this part of Holy week gave me some heavy food for thought; “What about us? How easily do we fail? Our silence, our lifestyles, our words, our friendships and our attitudes often deny Jesus just a blatantly as Peter’s declaration in John 18 that he was not a follower of Jesus. When we realize we have failed, our task is not to stay in that place. We must return to Christ. Peter returned to Christ and discovered Jesus eager to affirm him and give him a special assignment. (See John 21:15-22.)

Try taking some time this Holy Week to notice when you have failed Him, ask for forgiveness, and then look for your Holy assignment. I’ll be looking too .

Amen!

Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
March 19, 2024
John 14:1-3

This afternoon I celebrated a service of life, death and resurrection for a friend and former congregant. It was a joy to see so many gathered on a Tuesday afternoon to reconnect with each other and to remember a wonderful woman of faith.

I was filled with awe as family members and friends came forward to give testimonies of their life experience with this dear sweet lady. The preacher in me wants to say how having people share makes my job easier, and the friend in me wants to say, wow! I missed out on some really fun times because I had only known her these past 14 years.

At the cemetery, on this very cold and windy Tuesday, I shared from the text I have for you today; John 14:1-3; “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (NIV).

When I got home, I decided to go ahead and type up this week’s meditation, but where to start? Then my hands found a Meet With God study by Woodrow Kroll from 2007. In this particular issue, I read again the scripture from John 14:1-3 with new eyes. Here is a tidbit of Pastor Kroll’s teaching: “This lesson’s key verse gives us two golden action words to understand and apply: ‘let’ and ‘believe’. These two words anchor a choice that Jesus placed before His disciples and us. He essentially said, ‘Let not your heart be troubled; instead, let your heart believe in Me’. The same choice faces us every day. What are we going to let our hearts be—troubled or believing? Actually, our hearts are going to ‘be’ in some condition every day. Consider some of the reasons Jesus gave in John 14 to keep our hearts believing rather than troubled: Jesus’ identity. What trouble is greater than God (v. 1)?

Jesus’ home. What hope is greater than heaven (v.2)?

Jesus’ promise. What promise is greater than His promise of ‘a place for you’ (v.3)?”

I am now thinking of a song (I bet you are surprised – not). The song is “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” and the first verse begins; “O soul are you weary and troubled, no light in the darkness you see. There’s hope for a look at the Savior, a life more abundant and free…”

I hope you know the song and perhaps can finish the chorus as you go about your days looking for ways to believe rather than to be troubled.

Amen!

Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
March 13, 2024
Matthew 9:27-30

I have a dear friend that I enjoy studying the bible with. She encourages me to see things from a different perspective, ideas that if I just kept to myself and my comfort zone I would never see or even attempt to understand. I’ve often admitted that there are many times when I feel as if my faith is weak, that I long to have a greater faith. She responded with a gift: A grain of mustard seed in a little charm on a necklace.

Of course, this got me to thinking about what Jesus told his disciples who wondered why they were not successful in healing a boy who had seizures, and this after some very successful healings before. Matthew quotes Jesus in chapter 17 and verse 20; “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing is impossible for you”.

Obviously, Jesus is using an illustration. I am more and more convinced as I grow in discipleship that the issue here is not how much faith a person has, as if it can be measured on a scale like a commodity. I am seeing a new perspective concerning faith. I believe Jesus is saying either you believe me and trust me, or you don’t, there’s no middle ground. Ouch!

I feel like the father of the little boy that was brought to Jesus for healing. The father in desperation cried out to Jesus; “if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us” to this Jesus responds “’If you can’?” said Jesus,’ everything is possible for him who believes.’ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:22-24).

In our main scripture for today Jesus meets two blind men who call out to him; “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”. Jesus looks at them and simply asks; “‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ ‘Yes Lord,’ they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you’; and their sight was restored.” So, I ask you, how much faith do you think you have? How can you know? Does it change from one circumstance to another? This might be a good time to ponder what you understand faith in God to be. Sit still for a bit and listen for the Holy Spirit to guide you.

Amen!

Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
February 29, 2024
1 Kings 19:9-13 – Psalm 43

As I move through these 40 days of Lent, I am reminded daily of God’s desire to communicate with his children. The devotions I read and the scriptures I study all seem to say to me; “Listen up Edith, God is speaking a word for you that will make all the difference in the way you handle this day”. With that said, one of the readings comes from a mini devotional entitled Grace For Today; Psalm 43:3; “Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell”. The writer closes the devotional this way; “Be sensitive to the whisperings and stirrings of the Holy Spirit in your life, and face the future with faith and hope”.

True to form for me, this led me to “chase rabbits” concerning the idea of “the whisperings of the Holy Spirit from God’s mountain”, and I landed on a pretty familiar passage from 1 Kings concerning the prophet Elijah, who was running and hiding from the wicked Jezebel. After doing amazing things through Elijah, the wicked queen frightens him so much that he tries to hide, even from God, but God says to him; “What are you doing here, Elijah?” to which the prophet replies with a litany of all the good things he has been doing for the Lord and yet he is being pursued by Jezebel (after, humiliating her and her priests-never underestimate a woman humiliated ). Here we come to the passage that ties into the theme for today, 1 Kings 19:11-13; “The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the Presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.” It is here that God speaks with Elijah and reveals to him that the plan is for him to return from the direction he came (as scary as that might be) and find his successor, Elisha.

Is life throwing some heavy challenges your way? Are you fearful that you are alone to face the obstacles and decisions you must make? I can tell you that today I am being challenged. I need to make some decisions that are not comfortable for me. I’d rather have someone else take this responsibility, but the reality is, it is my responsibility and God will guide me in the light of his word, where He dwells and He will speak to me IF I will be still enough to hear the “whisperings and stirrings of the Holy Spirit”.

Take some time today, and the remainder of this week to just stop and listen. You might be surprised at what you hear.

Amen!