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Get Your Own Dirt

12/28/2020

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          There’s an old story about some scientists who got together and decided to tell God that they didn’t need him any longer.  They could now save and transplant organs and tissue.  They could even clone people.  Needless to say, God was impressed so He proposed a test.  “Why don’t you create a person the same way that I did with Adam and Eve?”  The scientists responded with, “Yes, we’ll do that.”  So they set to work and dug up some dirt.  God said, “Stop!  Get your own dirt.”
          That’s the way a lot of people hold their belief in God.  They’re really smarter and can come up with a better idea. Or, maybe, that God has outlived his usefulness and man can take it from there.  That is, until God tells us to come up with our own dirt.
          Believing should be more than just temporary or something that people outgrow.  It’s far more than that.  It’s realizing that God really does hold this universe and all that is in it in His hands.  It really is His dirt and He’s the one that created it, too.  Just thinking about it is profound.
          Proverbs 19:3 says, “The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord.”  God, in his great wisdom, looks down into the hearts of man and knows only too well what is there.  Thankfully, “God so loved the world…” or all would be lost and their would be no salvation for anyone.  Like Pastor Josh said, “Regardless of what man does God has a plan and He will do what is right and good.  God is wise to know the difference between right and wrong.”
          Proverbs 14:9-14 speaks to fools and clearly points out people who are slack in their faith in the Lord.  Proverbs 3:5-10 is the flip side of that.  They are well-known verses to all who believe that God is who He says He is.  It begins with “Trust in the Lord…”.  Jesus adds strength to these verses with his answer to the scribes question “Which is the first commandment of all?”  It’s in Mark 12:30-31.  Jesus says the first commandment of all is to love the Lord with all you heart, soul, mind, and strength.
          Proverbs 3 enlarges on this idea.  Verse 5 opens with trusting in the Lord with all your heart and not to rely on yourself.  Verse 6 says to accept the truth of God and He will lead you.  Verse 7 is to not think more highly of yourself than you do of God and to give Him the reverence He deserves.  If you do, verse 8 explains that as health is to our body so, too, fear of the Lord serves as our spiritual strength.
          The last two verses, 9 and 10, merit more attention.  These have to do with wealth and how it is used.  Story one is about a wealthy family who owned a very expensive vase.  One day their two-year old son got his hand stuck in the vase.  Try as they might, they couldn’t get his hand free.  Finally, the father took a hammer and broke the vase.  What was so important that the two-year old stuck his hand in the vase?  There was a penny in the bottom of the vase.  Something far greater was lost over a penny.
          Story number two is about a sailor marooned on an island.  The natives brought him to their village and made him king.  Why?  Because they had never seen anyone like him.  He found out that he would be king for a year and they would banish him to a deserted island to die.  The king decided to have the natives build boats, plan fruit trees, and build a palace on the deserted island.  When the year was up, he would live in a paradise.  He laid us his treasure in paradise.
          What is done with what one has makes a difference.    ​
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Home for Christmas

12/20/2020

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   Erna Marie was her name. She was a playmate from childhood.  Somewhere in the early years, she began to get sick. A lot of times she could only sit. There was no energy in her for anything else. But, she was always pleasant, and it was just nice to sit with her and do nothing. 
          The years grew and the illness grew with it. It turned out to be diabetes, the kind that required a lot of care.  In those days little was known about the illness and you were at the mercy of it. By the eighth grade it was common to wait for her after school and she wouldn't show up. Running into the office to find out what happened, the message was usually the same. She passed out in class, the ambulance was called, and Erna was in the hospital once again.
          She didn't go on to college. She didn't have the strength. Instead, she relied on God for all her needs. And He cared for her. Her life was a living testimony of grace under pressure. Who knows how many lives she touched.
          Every year about this time I think about Erna. The last time I saw her she was in her 30s.  I spotted the white cane and put my hand on her shoulder.  "Erna, this is Linda. How are you doing?" My old friend was just like always. She touched me back. "Linda, I have good news. I'm going home for Christmas.  I won't last out the year."
          A few months later I read in our hometown paper that she had passed.  I think of her every year about this time and how glad she was to go home for Christmas. Someday, I'll get to go home, too, Erna.  Merry Christmas.
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Without a Doubt

12/13/2020

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“Doubt is a terrible enemy.” stated Pastor Josh during the course of the sermon.  Romans 14:23 says that “he that doubts is damned if he eats because he eats not of faith: for whatever is not of faith is sin.”  Genesis 3:1 yields an appreciation for doubt when we see its use in seducing Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The serpent says, “Hath God said…?”  Adam and Eve gave up a perfect life with God.  Then Pastor Josh said, “The devil will tempt you to do wrong. God will test you to do right.”  And so it has been ever since Adam and Eve’s sin.

Doubt plays a part in sinners’ lives as well as those who are saved.  The message for the sermon was taken from Mark 4:35-41.  Jesus retreats to the sea of Galilee to teach.  There are so many there that he stands in a ship just offshore.  Later that same day Jesus, who is in the ship, says that they should go to the other side.  Some other ships joined them.  Jesus has had a full day and retreats to the rear of the ship to sleep.

While he’s asleep a great wind comes up and beats the waves against the boat hard enough that water creeps into it.  The disciples who have witnessed the miracles that Jesus has performed are afraid.  Somehow, doubt has entered in.  They awaken Jesus and ask him if he cares that they could perish.  He gets up and rebukes the wind and says to the sea, “Peace be still.”  Then there was great calm.

“As long as you keep the world on the outside, it doesn’t matter about what’s going on out there.  The boat will float.  It’s when it gets on the inside.  That’s when the boat will sink.  That’s where the problem is.  And so it is in life.  When the problem gets in the boat with you, then you can sink.” continued Pastor Josh.

“How is it you have no faith?” (Mark 4:40) The conundrum is this: Jesus says how is it you have no faith, the disciples marvel that he can calm the sea.  Jesus, the doer of miracles, the Son of God, the king who has come to save his people, Israel; how did this get lost on the disciples?  Doubt.  When the cares of the world came spilling into the boat, the disciples lost it.
​

First John 4:15 states that those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, that God dwells in them and them in Him.  “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19) Christ made a promise.  It’s in John 14:27. Read it whenever fear and doubt creep in.
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A Way That Seems Right...

12/9/2020

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         “The devil decided that he would ascend up and be like the Most High.  God said that ain’t gonna work and He kicked him out of heaven.  Listen, he isn’t going back.  Sin never has worked in heaven and it never will.  This notion that ‘I’ll live any old way I want to and go to heaven’, that’s dangerous theology.  If you can sin and get by with it, you’re lost.  You’re just lost.  That’s a dangerous notion to think you can just live any old way you want to and not care for the things of God.  Listen, you’re making a mockery of sin.” warned Pastor Josh.
          Words that will make you sit up and pay attention.  The account of Satan’s fall from heaven is found in Isaiah 14:12-15.  The world of today is rife with ideas and notions that have nothing to do with God, morals, or doing the right thing.  In fact, given a little thought on the condition of this world quickly brings one to the realization that God has been kicked out of everywhere except the church already.  As Pastor Josh says, though, that is coming next.  Then, the only place God will be welcome is in the home.  And the world will come for that, too.  Don’t shake your head that it couldn’t possibly happen—it’s already happening.  And it’s already happened in countries around the world.
          So, where’s the red line that won’t be crossed?  Where do you stand?  Measure yourself by the words in Proverbs 14:9-14.  Fools mock sin, they excuse it or, better yet, make excuses for sin.  Not only for themselves but for others, too.  Like it or not, God favors the righteous.  Excuses won’t work with Him.  God keeps a record.  Revelation 20:12 tells us, “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books…”.  It would be an awful thing to discover at this stage that sin was not taken lightly.  God even goes so far to say that every idle word will be brought into account on the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36-37)  Every idle word.  Think about that.
          There is a way that seems right to a man. (Proverbs 14:12)  “I’ll do what I want, there is no God.  I’ve got all that I can get and it’s laid up for me.  I’ll just eat, drink and be merry.  I’ll make a mockery of those old religious fanatics.  I don’t have time for the things of God.  I don’t have time to listen to the preacher.  I don’t have time to pray.  I don’t have time to read my Bible.  I don’t have time to witness.  I don’t have time to go to church.” said Pastor Josh.  It seems right to a man.
          And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (John 3:19-20) 



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    Linda Johnson

    Linda Johnson moved to Douglas County with her husband Tom 12 years ago after retiring from teaching. Following Tom's death in 2016, Linda began facilitating a grief support group called GriefShare through Sweden Church.​ She serves as the Sunday School teacher for our High School class. Her "Layman's Pen" articles are also published in the local paper, The Douglas County Herald. 

    Andrea Strong

    Andrea is Pastor Joshua Strong's wife. She also serves Sweden Church as Church Secretary, website administrator, and Sunday School teacher to the Intermediate Class.

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