A Word from the Pastor
September 2010
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross…" (Hebrews 12:2)
I recently heard a song that I haven’t been able to get out of my head. It’s a Steve Green tune entitled, “Find Us Faithful”. The song is thought provoking and has me thinking about the legacy I’ll leave behind once my days are over. If my loved ones follow in my footsteps, where will they end up? A tear comes to my eye when I think of how desperate I am for them to love Christ and to walk by faith in the footsteps He left for us. But can they look at my life and see that I was willing to do that? Can I continue to pursue the course of the cross, desiring the will of God over my own because my love for Him is greater than my love for me? Does my life testify to my love for God and my trust in Jesus Christ or does my life look very much like those who neither love God nor trust Jesus? These are questions we must ask ourselves, and as we consider them together:
…may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Blessings,
Steve
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God’s Powerful Word
The Bible contains about 800,000 words, depending on the translation. This is about four times as many words as are found in a book of average length.
Although the Bible is so long and deals with the greatest themes that can engage the human mind, its vocabulary is singularly limited. It uses only 6,000 different words, a very small number compared to the 20,000 words that Shakespeare employed while writing his plays.
Not only is the Bible’s vocabulary limited, but the average word in it contains only five letters. However, many of these short words are full of the deepest meanings and are worthy of earnest study. For example, consider these five-letter words: grace, peace, faith, saved, serve, glory and Jesus.
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To Pray
“To pray is to seek communion with the very spirit of a holy God.
To pray is not primarily to ask for things, but reverently to receive a Presence.
To pray is to open our innermost self to the royal entry of the eternal Lord.
To pray is to expose one’s secret being to the purifying fires of God’s holy grace and
love.” —John Henry Jowett
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“Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or
the handle of faith.”
—Henry Ward Beecher
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Finding true life
No one ever struggled more to find inner unity and, thus, real life than St. Paul. In chapter 8 of his letter to the Romans, Paul testified: “those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6, NRSV).
Spirit-minded souls, Paul would say, will find the fruit of the Holy Spirit within: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23, NRSV).
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The 3 articles and the quote above are from the August issue of Communication Resources Newsletter, Newsletter. | 
