Grayling Free Methodist Church - Blog - The Portly Padre Ponders

COVID-19 Response 2

3/17/2020

Good Afternoon! Yesterday was different, but exciting. It was different in the sense that we led worship in an empty auditorium. It was exciting when we consider that over 1200 people connected (at least briefly) to our worship stream. It seemed like the Spirit was present as Pastor Kelly and the worship team sang out to God. We continue to pray that God speaks to people through yesterday's stream. Join us in that prayer.
Today is different too! While I realize that many still showed up at their place of work, I however, am home. I am asking God to show me what's next, for us, the people we serve and our community. I also realize that I am not alone for there are others, many others, who are home because they are teachers, students and tomorrow we will be joined by restraunt workers. What do we do during this time?
Let's begin by taking time to be with God! Shut off the noise and just be still before Him for awhile. Spend some time reading and meditating on His Word, take time to pray for your family and friends. Take time to pray for our leaders across the world. Take time to ask God to reveal Himself to you and others. Most importantly take time to listen to Him! He has much to say to you! Take the time to hear it!
This is what I heard from Him today; Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. How do we respond to this? Now, is our time to lovingly, graciously look to influence those around us! It's time to let our light shine! It would be easy to sit at home in the shadows and enjoy the peace and quiet, but I believe that God is calling us to action. This is how:
1) Take time to hear from God.
2) Ask Him to lay people on your heart.
3) Ask Him to show you how to reach out to them.
4) Call them, text them, email them and ask how they are.
5) Find out what their needs are. If they need help from
the church let us know. Our contact information is in the
bulletin and directory. My number is 989-390-4369 and
my email is rlmarshalljr1956@gmail.com. Feel free to
share this information out to those with real need.
6) In your conversations encourage them and ask to pray
with them. If they allow you to pray with them pray for
God to protect them and bless them. If they are sick
pray for healing.
7) If you, or your teenagers are home consider the
possibility of caring for one families children who may
need care as a result of school closures. Please don't
care for more than one family as that may defeat the
purpose of school closures.
8) Remember that the elderly and sick may feel especially
isolated during this time. They will appreciate a phone
call.
9) During this time parents with young children may be
overly stressed. They may need to hear an adult
voice. Be willing to be that voice of encouragement.
The greatest way to make sure that you are cared for during this time is to care for others. So be creative and take the time to reach out to others from your home. It will be good for you and appreciated by them. LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE! BE THE SALT THAT INFLUENCES OTHERS! Expect God to work through you as you listen to Him. Remember, its during times like this that people are more open to God and you.
Blessings,
Pastor Bob

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Covid-19 Response Touchpoint 1

3/14/2020

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Good Morning Church and Friends!
Just wanted to touch base today and let you know that I am thinking of you and praying for you this morning. I also wanted to thank the church for your positive support.
I also want to encourage you not to panic. There seems to be a lot of that going around. I want you to be careful, take precautions and limit your exposure to others. I also want you to see this as an opportunity.
1) Hopefully this time will slow us down a little.
2) So take the time to be with God.
3) Be intentional about your relationships. Use the phone, text, write and send emails.
4) Pray for and pray with people about their concerns and issues through this time.
5) Ask God to reveal himself to people during this time. May we all see our vulnerability and need of His constant care. It is normally during times of great need that people begin to look to God.
6) Be positive and avoid cynicism. Be careful not to turn this into part of the political discussion. Let this be a time when we look to God and encourage others to do the same.
Remember, look to this page tomorrow at 830 as we livestream our service for you. It will remain on the page so everyone can see it at a later time.

In the meantime blessings,
Pastor Bob

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Preaching What We Don't Want to Hear

7/17/2019

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I want my doctor to tell me that I want him to prescribe a diet that consists regularly of blackberry pie and ice cream. Why, because I LOVE blackberry pie and ice cream. There’s only one problem. Blackberry pie and ice cream are full of sugar and I am diabetic. So, while I may be able to pull off a piece once a blue moon, to have it consistently would be an issue. We live in a day when people want us to tell them that whatever they want to do is ok. I suppose that people have always been that way. It just seems prominent now. Whatever, I want you to tell me that either it’s ok or that I have some disorder that leaves me powerless to do otherwise. That works if you live by human standards. Not so well, if you are a Christian committed to loving God. For you see the proof of loving God is to be obedient to ALL His commandments. To be honest, that doesn’t make my day either. Yet, Jesus said that if we love Him we will obey His commandments.

It’s pretty clear that God believes that you and I have a choice when it comes to His directives. If we love Him, we obey. If we put ourselves or others before Him we tend not to be obedient. For many people today who want to call themselves Christians, this is a problem. When we look for churches that teach us what we want to hear, encourage politicians to pass laws that allow us to do what we want to do, get upset when someone tells us that we might want to think about what we do and the potential consequences of our behavior, or even worse, someone challenges our faith based on our behavior, we have to ask ourselves a question that we really don’t want to ask; can I truly be a Christian if I consistently disobey God’s law? That is a question that I can’t answer for you. Yet, if you seek the counsel of God’s Word and the direction of the Holy Spirit, the answer to that question will be made clear to you. If you truly want to hear it!

This is a hard way to go! We want people to like us! We want to avoid conflict! But, can we represent God well if we do not stand with Him? To stand with God is to take the same stands He makes! Not with a judgmental or critical spirit. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us handle these things like Jesus did. "Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more!" The real question is if we tell people what they want to hear, does God change His standard, or does He still expect us to know better and do the right thing? If we tell others that something is ok that God says isn’t, do we have any responsibility? The answer to both of those questions is yes. As a pastor it breaks my heart when people leave the church for any reason. Sometimes they leave because they are uncomfortable with the scriptures I teach from. Recently, I lost some people because of teaching the last part of Romans 1. There is quite a list there of things that people do who will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Yet, the truth is that I/we don’t teach those things to tick people off or because we enjoy telling people they are wrong. We do it because our hope is that when people hear that God says their behavior is wrong that they will repent and find God’s forgiveness and peace. That is the only right reason to teach about refraining from the passions of the flesh. In a day when men want to do what is right in their own minds, preaching about these things can be a problem. But, the truth is there was a day when I was confronted with my sins. I saw the need not only to ask forgiveness but to change. Jesus came into my life and through His spirit began to bring change and transformation. This is the abundant life Christ promised. A life where I own my sin and flaws. A life where I ask for God’s gracious help that I might change. This has opened up life to me. So, when I ask myself the question, "Am I willing to tell people things they might not want to hear?", my answer is, "Yes, I will". It’s the only way I know to help people experience the wonderful grace Christ offers. We have to see our need before we will come to Him. So, am I trying to rain on your parade? Absolutely not! I am trying to help you see your need to experience the joy, the power, the happiness of walking in Christ’s parade. Come join us!

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How Do You Choose A Church?

5/23/2019

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How do you choose a church? I know people who choose a church based on where their friends go. Some choose a church that believes the way they do. Some choose a church by worship style or whether or not they like the pastor. I choose a church by asking God where He wants me to be! I look for a church that is committed to seeking God. I look for a church that teaches and strives to follow God’s word. I look for a church that is looking for ways to reach the people around them. I look for a church that is going to challenge me to grow. Ultimately I look for a church that is led by the Spirit of God!

My experience is that finding a church that will challenge me to grow and allows the Spirit of God to lead is a rare find! Every church has good people and people who play games. The key is to find a church where the leaders (pastor’s and lay people) rely on God’s Spirit to lead them. It’s way too easy to take God’s church and make it our own. I know of one church where the goal was to make their church our small church on the hill. That’s what they did. It’s their church. It’s on a hill. And they do it their way! And of course it’s small and will get smaller as time goes on.

If the Holy Spirit is to lead our churches we must give them to Him! We must allow His Word to determine our mission, our values, and our priorities! Key decisions need to be bathed in prayer! In addition we need to be still and listen! We must learn to lovingly challenge one another to be more like Jesus! We need to select leaders who seek God’s will and direction and park their opinions at the back door. We need to be dreaming and scheming as to how we can help our people reach out effectively to others. We need to be aware of the culture around us and the dangers that culture brings into the life of the church. We need to be both ambassadors of the message of God’s love and defenders of the truth.

We need to recognize that the message of Jesus will never be popular to the culture as a whole but, recognize that it speaks to those disillusioned and broken by the culture at hand. Churches that are led by God are led by broken, flawed people who seek and rely on the Spirit. Those church leaders that are haughty, arrogant, filled with their own agendas, and driven by their own opinions may be leading churches but, they are no longer led by God. We must not allow the teaching of the church to be changed by the culture. However, we couch the gospel message in language that helps people understand the principles of God that still leads them into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

To be God’s church we must point others to Jesus! We must challenge people to grow in their faith and be obedient to God’s Word. We must spur one another on to love and good works. That is a church that will be blessed by God.

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Advent Number 4

12/27/2018

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"She will give birth to a son, and you will give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins!" Matthew 1:21 I wonder if we would get more excited about this if we realized what our sin was really doing to our lives? Would we like it better if it said, "She will give birth to a son, and you will give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from the consequences of their sins"? I think the answer to the second question is absolutely yes! I would be much happier if I could do whatever I want and God would just smooth over any consequences and unpleasant results of my actions.

Too bad life doesn’t work that way.

The thing that I am finding out as a diabetic is that there are direct consequences to the choices we make. I love blueberry pie, and when I eat it it drives my blood sugar toward the heavens. But, I also found that if I take my Canadian wilderness canoe trip and take my blood test within a few days of arriving home that that activity drives my blood sugar results way down. So for the past few years I have used this tactic to beat the test. The only problem is that while the doctor thinks I’m doing great, I am not beating my diabetes. What I’m learning is that beating the test doesn’t solve the problem of controlling my disease. I think that is what we do with our sins. I want to convince people that I have everything under control when I’m really running headlong into the valley of destruction.
Everyone my think we have our addictions under control, when in reality, my addictions are controlling me. We may get our spouses to believe we are faithful, when we may well be driving our families into separation and pain.

We need to see that it’s our sins and bad habits that are the real problem rather than beating the test. The test isn’t destroying my life, my addictive sins are. Once I acknowledge that, I can begin to heal. Jesus came to take away our sins! Once we accept that and walk in His ways, then we truly eventually remove the consequences and live in truth as a healing person. When we just live to pass the test and fool those around us, eventually the truth will surface and the consequences will be revealed. Maybe it’s time to get excited about our sins being taken away, that we might truly be healed.

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The Portly Padre Ponders

12/1/2018

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Advent Number 1

They will call Him Immanuel, which means God with us! I willingly admit that those words mean much more to me today than they did that warm October evening when I began my walk with Jesus. During those early days in my walk of faith I remember a sense of warmth flood my being. That warmth told me that something had truly happened that night that Jesus came into my life. I felt different and in some real ways I was different. For the first time in my life I had hope for a bright future! I felt the promise of life because I realized that I had been formed by God and that He had given me my personality, background, as well as gifts and abilities to fulfill some yet to be discovered purpose that the Father had for my life! Most importantly my view of God changed. I originally saw God as someone to be feared. Someone who could send me to hell. Someone, who would judge me. I learned rather quickly that my viewpoint was wrong. I soon realized that God in all His presentations was one to be respected and loved. I learned that in His heart, His desire for me was not hell, rather He wants me to share my life with His Spirit and with Him throughout eternity. Once I knew that He didn’t come to judge me, but, rather to redeem me I was solidly in. I knew that I could trust Him with my life and eventually my soul.

Now, some 45 years later I can confidently say that what began during the warm October evening by a step of faith is now a proven reality to me. I have experienced God’s presence many times. He has given me special gifts and abilities that I did not have before that October night. More times than I can count I have awakened to a sense of awareness of what was coming next and the steps I should take. God has warned me about danger and redirected my steps. He has taught me through the events of our shared adventure together that His Word is true and that He is with me every step of the way. As exciting as those early days were when God began to reveal Himself to me, I’m more confident now as I know that just as He has guided, equipped, and enabled me in the past, He will continue to lead me as He walks me through the rest of my life. While my hope of eternal life is still an act of faith, it is a faith that grows stronger with the memories and experiences I have had with Him through the years. I know that He loves me! I know that He loves you! Trust Him today! Discover Immanuel, God with us!

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COVID-19 Response 2

Covid-19 Response Touchpoint 1

Preaching What We Don't Want to Hear

How Do You Choose A Church?

Advent Number 4

The Portly Padre Ponders

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