Pastor’s Corner

Trivia:

Happy Thursday to you, Happy Thursday to you. Well guess what, puppies are born with 28 baby teeth. six incisors; two canines; six premolars on bath top and bottom, while adult dogs have 42 teeth. Way to go Brenda you guessed the right number of teeth. Yay!!!

Here's a blast from the past for you to guess; What famous candy bar was introduced in the 1920's? Almond joy; Baby Ruth; Snickers; or Kit Kat? More tomorrow.

challenge:

Psalm 40:5-8 "O Lord my God, you have performed many wonders for us, Your plans for us are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them. 6 You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand--you don't require burnt offerings or sin offerings. 7 Then I said, "Look, I have come. As is written about me in the Scriptures: 8 I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart."

Do you know the song, "Count your many blessing, name than one by one?" Here in verse 5 David is recalling the volume of blessings that God had poured out on Him. As His children He does just that for us. He hears our requests, our needs, and our necessities, then He fulfills those many request that will bring benefit to our lives. They are so numerous that we are overcome with His gracious dealings in our lives.

Then David goes on to speak of his insights-- that the many blessings that we enjoy, are not His way of being required in order to receive these blessings, but rather are His joy to impart on us His children. Then as a result of God's gracious dealings in our lives, we end up striving to bring joy to Him due to our desire to accomplish His desires for our lives. Not out of obligation, but out of joy because of the way we have experienced His many blessings.

I can remember my grandfather Rhoades, my mom's dad, coming to town. They were determined to bring fun and variety to our lives. We went bowling, miniature golf, movies, and we enjoyed popcorn from the workers, and yes even a candy bar. These were all first's for us, I remember riding in his new Oldsmobile for he had a new car each and every year. While our family car was always driving an older Chevy. Dad was a Chevy man, and he maintained our car. Grandpa was a mechanic, but he determined to never service his own car.

I always looked forward to them visiting us because they always had something new that they would bring into our otherwise simple lives. They would come to watch me umpire baseball, or attend my band concerts, or go out of their way to set in church right in the middle of us kids, and then go to Sunday School with us children. They joyed in the piano and violin recitals of my sister Nancy, and would do many things to make those things a special. Take us to enjoy our first Baskin & Robins ice cream cone.

These were the many memories that mom's parents would intentionally, bring to us. Because they were so intent on spoiling us with something special, I would take joy in vacuuming grandpa Rhoades car, and wash and paste wax his car, which took most of the day, all because they made us feel special in their own unique way. Grandpa would always point out to all that I bore his name as my middle name, Earl. That was so important for him to bring to any conversation that he entered into when I was present.

SO GO WITH GOD for He joys in bringing blessings to our lives, just like I joyed in blessing my Grandfather. When we recount the many blessing that we enjoy because of His love for us, the natural result is that we joy in serving Him.