Friday Thoughts

This Friday Thought is done in my bedroom with a blackberry that has keys the size of ant toes!

 I'm looking forward to spending the afternoon having a blast with my snowblower, hanging out with my family while we drink coffee, play games, and watch movies- after I finish the sermon!

I'd like to send you a Christmas prayer for this season. Please receive this as more real than a "wish," this is what I am asking my God for you on this day.

"Maker of both sun and snow, Lord of the weather and the people who experience it, I ask that You would bless my friends this season with a moment of You when they least expect it.  For some it will be a moment of conviction, for some a moment of healing, for some a moment of hope, for some a moment of distraction from what haunts them, for some a moment of much needed tenderness, and for some a moment of profound intimacy.

Lord, would you bless them with a moment that is real enough to remember and a touch that is deep enough to change them.  May the result be a heart that is closer to You and a smile that is obvious to us.

May this be a 'merry Christmas' because of what You do not what we do.

In the name of the Child, the Man, the resurrected King, and the Coming Lord-Jesus. Amen."

Believing,

Pastor Dave


Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

reminders today for those who are in living relationship with Christ

This morning as I got ready for the day I listened to the news again. I found myself ignoring the teleprompter readers, who had nothing new to say, and thinking about the New Year (I can only hear the words bailout and billions so many times before I imagine taking a used baseball bat and "repairing" the T.V. and car radio).

There are countless questions about the future, the economy, terrorists, freedom, employment, ecology, and a host of other topics that politicians pretend to have all the answers for. Most of those questions can be answered in the fuzzy world of hypothetic guesses (it is always either sunny and 75 degrees or a lifeless frozen tundra in that world, it depends on the point you're arguing). But, all the answers from all the experts seem to do little more than add confusion to frustration.

Just a second, let me think this through… confusion + frustration = good choices?

I have some reminders today for those who are in living relationship with Christ.

1. We don't let the markets, IRA's, food or gas prices, unemployment percentages, or anything that is part of a governmental economic outlook report determine our mood or future.

2. I teach people more about Christ in how I live during widespread panic than I do by letting religious clichés fall out of my face.

3. There is no force in this universe that is powerful enough to stand before God and demand that He take our joy away.

4. The biggest problems we are facing as a nation have their root in either greed or envy – both of which should not be found in our spirits.

5. Abraham Lincoln and Elvis Presley died and so will everyone else someday – everyone faces God.

6. Generosity has a one day shelf life. It must be given even when it isn't easy… consistently, freely, joyfully, and obediently.

7. The Bible speaks to what you're thinking, feeling, or doing –read it!

8. We are to live different, respond different, hope different, celebrate different, mourn different, and go through trials different than everyone else.

Same trial. Different reaction.

9. We are too quick to whine and attempt to salvage a lifestyle that Christ calls us to surrender to Him anyway.

10. All hell can break loose, every plant can close, every price can skyrocket, every criminal can unleash the worst their twisted mind can imagine, every storm can have its way within the earth's atmosphere, and everyone of my fears can be birthed into reality –
I'M STILL A CHILD OF THE KING OF KINGS!
MY HOME IS NOT ON THIS OR ANY OTHER PHYSICAL PLANET!

I DO NOT RECEIVE MY VALUE FROM MY CHECKING ACCOUNT!
I SERVE A RISEN SAVIOR!

AS LONG AS I HAVE BREATH IT WILL BE USED TO WORSHIP!

"MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS THAN JESUS BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS!"

I HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE OBEDIENT TO THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE!

THIS WORLD HAS NOTHING TO OFFER ME THAT GOD CAN'T TRUMP!

MY FREEDOM HAS BEEN SECURED BY NONE OTHER THAN THE PERFECT LAMB OF GOD, YOU CAN WIRE TAP, HANDCUFF ME, AND LOCK ME IN A CELL OF POVERTY OR IRON – YOU CAN'T TAKE AWAY THE FREEDOM MY SOUL KNOWS!

It's time for a new equation: faith + anointing = today.

There, I needed to get that off my chest.

Merry Christmas,
D. David Kessler

2nd Imaginary Email Conversation with my Christian Friend

2^nd Imaginary Email Conversation with my Christian Friend

Hi, again,

I hope this letter finds you and your snow blower doing well.  I agree with you – white Christmas and green New Years.  But the first of January is only the sign that there are still three months of complaining about Michigan.

I'm glad you didn't lose your job.  These are times when panic is the popular response and greediness grows like a weed.  Protect your heart.  Don't forget that your friend that did lose his job needs more than a word of encouragement, he may need help.  Look at James 2:14-26.  I was at a meeting yesterday where that text was the devotion we started with.  It has a lot to say to us.

That brings me to the topic of this week's letter.  I thank you for being honest with me about your current Bible habits.  That's got to change my friend!

Do you remember when you first met Jesus?  I'll never forget when I saw you the Sunday after you read the whole Bible in a weekend.  You looked like you had just come from an ancient Egyptian torture chamber!  You couldn't tell me anything about what you had read.  I think you invented the term "red-eye" that weekend.

We worked through taking the Bible in healthy pieces and letting God apply them to your life.  You learned how to not use the Bible as a weapon to prove a point, and how it's best not to overlook things because you don't like what they say.  I remember you being amazed at the fact that I don't understand all of it, after all I'm a pastor shouldn't I know everything about the Bible?  It was a hard lesson for you that we can trust and live what we do understand and respectfully be in awe of what we don't understand…yet.  And we all have things we don't understand.

You have gone through times when your interaction with the Word of God was personal and intimate, and times when it was almost surgical in its soul application.  You went through times when you felt you had to read it out of guilt, times when you wanted to read it so you could feed your own pride of knowing something someone else didn't, and you had times of real growth through huge trials that the Bible was a real help.

So here's my question, "why'd you let it become so distant from you?"  "Why did you think that you could be close to God and far from His Word?"

In my last letter we talked about prayer.  This one is going to call you to action also.  Get back in the Word!  Change some priorities and let God speak to you through His love letter.  You know that will impact how you handle the current problem you're having with your family.  Get back in the Word and let it get in you!

I know you enough to know you're thinking about some News Year's resolutions (like the one we both made to meet at the gym every morning at 5:00 am… If I remember right we clocked a total of 3 times before we got "to busy").  I'm not talking about a goal or personal challenge that involves tomorrow. 

Right now- get into the Word.  Right now make that a topic of prayer and a step of obedience.  If you need help getting started again, start with one of the Gospels.  Go slow.  Log your challenges and discoveries in a notebook.  Talk with some of your friends at church about what you're reading.  Let the Bible be a topic of conversation and a priority of your life.

You cannot stay close to God by living on what you hear from the Bible on Sunday morning.  Get it off the table and into your life.

I'm only saying that because I long to see the joy of being close to God on your face again and the fruit of His being close to you in your words.

Oh, by the way… that excuse you just thought of – ya, that's lame and you know it (do I know you or what?)!

Looking Forward to Seeing You Sunday,

Friend Dave