Month: January 2022

The Giver

/ James Penner / Leave a comment
“If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:11

I never really understood the joy of giving until we had children. To see their faces light up on Christmas morning, or a birthday, or a surprise gift throughout the year, and seeing their joy radiate melted my heart. There is something inexplicably wonderful about giving, be it love, or laughter or possessions.

Giving Brings Forth Joy

Imagine the joy God must feel when He brings forth gifts to us when we ask Him. After all, He gave to us the ultimate power of free will. We choose to believe, or not to believe, in Him. So when we chose to believe, and exercise that belief by actually calling on Him and asking for His help and blessing, imagine the joy He feels. It’s not that hard to imagine, Jesus told us so Himself in Matthew 7:11. So, why not bring God some joy today and call on him. He loves to give.

Rejoice!

/ James Penner / Leave a comment
“Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!” Philippians 4:4

Joy is a choice we can make, no matter the circumstances that surround us. Many years ago when my wife and I both lost our jobs on the same day, we went home and did a victory lap in our kitchen! God had something new in store for us. We just decided to exercise our faith and trust Him. I also remember the funeral of my father when he passed away too young at the age of 68. We cried, and then rejoiced through tears at the incredible life he led, and the gift of laughter he gave to us. We celebrated that God needed his ‘dad jokes’ filling heaven more than he needed to stay behind a few more years on earth. Philippians tells us:

Rejoice, and then rejoice again!

Just one line later, Paul, the author of Philippians, goes on to say why we can rejoice in all circumstances. “Be anxious for nothing,” he says, “but in everything by prayer, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Think Bigger

/ James Penner / Leave a comment

God said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” Exodus 14:16

In the movie Jaws, one of my top five all time favorite films, Roy Scheider is leaning over the stern of the Orca, their relatively small and aging fishing boat, when he gets his first glimpse of the great white shark. In a moment of sheer panic he backs away, somewhat in shock at what he’s seen. His only comment,

“You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat”

The doctor walks in, looks us in the eye and says, it’s cancer. The banker calls and says the payment is overdue. A loved one looks at us and says this is beyond repair. There are a thousand and one scenarios in life where we just need a bigger boat.

God Is A God Of The Miraculous

When you reach out in faith to God, and hand your burden to him, somehow, someway, waters divide and a way through is revealed. He is all you need.

The Redwood

/ James Penner / Leave a comment

“…he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” Psalm 1:3

The Redwood trees along the West Coast of the United States are an amazing creation. With some standing more than 300 feet tall, the fact that they live, and how they live, is even more amazing. Imagine the task a normal tree has to feed nutrients and water from its roots up a trunk to the branches. Now imagine that same task in a Redwood, that high into the sky. Yet the redwood possesses a secret, a system of roots along its long trunk and all the way to its canopy to capture the almost daily early morning fog along the Pacific coastline. All that the Redwood needs for life surrounds it. We can learn something from the Redwoods,

Life Giving Blessings Are All Around

Psalm 1 begins by telling us that, blessed is the man (and woman) whose delight is in Lord. That such a person will bring forth fruit, and that such a person will not wither, and that whatever that person does shall proper. Blessings will literally surround you, and chase after you, when your delight is in the Lord.

Entry Celebration

/ James Penner / Leave a comment

“…Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise…” Psalm 100:4

I have spoken with so many in my lifetime that approach God from a position of intimidation and fear. Images dance in their minds of veritable lightening bolts with booming voices of disapproval coming from heaven to chastise them for how they have lived their lives. How will He respond to me, they say. I simply reply, the response will be,

WELCOME HOME

If you need a bit of a pep talk to gin up your courage about approaching the Creator of the universe, just read through Psalm 100. In this very short Psalm you will read one message loud and clear. God wants you to celebrate when you call on Him. The Cross of Christ took on all our junk and put out the “come in, we’re open” sign so we could feel the warm embrace of our Heavenly Father.

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100

Strength Test

/ James Penner / Leave a comment

“…The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1

I was a skinny kid through junior high and my first two years of high school, and really did not feel like I fit in with the athletes, or the “in crowd”. I felt intimidated, just another face in the crowd in my high school class of over four hundred students, and in a high school four times that size. Then, I met a friend who was into weightlifting after school in our high school gym. He introduced me to his friends and they became my social club, a friendly place to hang out, and a place to learn something new. Between my sophomore and junior years there was a transformation. The skinny kid was changing and the football coach was suddenly paying attention. I learned something in this process:

Strength Is Respected

There is a higher level of strength, beyond our comprehension. Who can fathom the power to create the heavens and the earth. Who can comprehend the ability to breath life into us. We toil and spin trying to control the uncontrollable when the ultimate power is God. Real strength isn’t about your physical ability, it’s your ability to call out in prayer to the One who has the power to change your circumstance. Prayer is the moment when you have God’s undivided attention.

Carried Away

/ James Penner / 1 Comment

Jesus said, “…Take up your cross and follow Me.” Matthew 16:24

Yesterday, my wife found “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, the extended version, on television and decided it was a good day to watch four and a half hours of battles against the forces of darkness trying to take an iron grip on middle earth. I sat down to join her somewhere in the middle of this J.R.R. Tolkien classic tale. It wasn’t long before one of the best lines in film emerged. Frodo Baggins has the very difficult calling of carrying a “Ring” filled with awesome power to its destruction. In a final climb up a mountain, just at a moment when the burden is almost to great for Frodo to bear, Sam, his friend, says to him,

“I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.”

My wife and I looked at each other and both felt the weight, and truths, found in that statement. When Christ says to us, “Take up your cross and follow me,” He knows there are callings, and dreams, and burdens we have to carry in this life, but over and over again in scripture, God says,

“I will carry you”

When the load gets too heavy, hand it to the Lord. You are not alone. Let Him carry you.

Overcome The Impossible

/ James Penner / Leave a comment

“Without faith it is impossible to please God…” Hebrews 11:6

An incredibly powerful and imposing thought. Without faith it is impossible to please God? There is nothing in life that God asks more from us than our faith in Him. Faith is the singularly defining purpose of our lives.

To Believe, Or Not To Believe

For me, in my younger years, I searched for meaning in life with God on the sidelines. I sensed He was there but He was not tangible to me. Yet in those quiet, still, wee hours of the morning, every time a singular thought would turn toward heaven, inexplicable peace would flood through me. Hebrews 11 starts by saying, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” There is an intangible, yet very real presence that floods through us when we choose believe, and God in response draws near. I can’t explain it other than to say, talk to Him as you would speak tenderly to someone you love. “God, I believe you are close by, let me know you are near.” This simple act of faith is incredibly pleasing to God. He will answer.

On Trial

/ James Penner / Leave a comment
“Count is all joy when you meet trials of various kinds…” James 1:2

Joy in trials? Really? My trials don’t feel joyous and I face them every day, some more pronounced than others. Trails with schedules, with kids or coworkers. Trials with vendors, or fellow drivers, or the cable or cell company help desk, or the store clerk. We can go deeper with trials, loss of a job or relationship. Still deeper, loss of someone precious to us. Need I go on? Unfortunately,

Breathing = Trials

While I’m not a fan of trials, they are not going anywhere anytime soon so I’ve leaned to make peace with them. Jesus gave us several road maps to work with on this, one of them being in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the sons (and daughters) of God.” You can indeed find joy in trials when you use them as an opportunity to love or lift those around you, yes even those that are fraying your nerves. In brightening their day a bit you are giving them a gift that they may desperately be needing at just that moment. The next time you face a trial, before you react the way you would normally would, take a breath and say, “I am blessed, when I am a peacemaker.”

Breathing can also = Joy

Moving Mountains

/ James Penner / 1 Comment

“If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there’, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” Matthew 17:20

Of the many promises of God, the ones that seem to give us pause are the bold proclamations of our being able to perform miracles. We stumble over them, trying to figure out how to interpret them, or apply them to our lives, and in some cases believe them when they don’t turn out just like we imagined they would. Can a mountain move? How is that possible. Am I Neo living in ‘The Matrix’ film with the ability to bend matter? Can I move mountains? The short answer is, “Yes, you can”. I’ve seen cancers cured with no medical explanation, finances turned on a dime, and decades long hopeless relationships reunited.

Mountains Move Every Day!

Jesus is talking about obstacle removal. The obstacle between us, and what God wants for our lives, is our Faith and Trust in Him. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”

Mountains Move Because God Moves Them.

God deserves all the credit, He deserves all the glory. Matthew 19:26 says, “With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Look to Him for mountain moving faith, and then, trust Him with the results.