June 2009 Article

Pastor’s Perspective:

I have been thinking about the long cold winter and the cold spring that has stopped a lot of my projects and “honey do’s” around the house.  I started to blame the bad weather and a lot of the circumstances in my life lately, and that was I don’t have to admit that I have just gotten a little lazy.  To be honest I have not been very ambitious lately.  The fence is in bad shape, but the cows and horses haven’t gotten out (so it’s not too bad).  The yard and garden need some extra work, but after I mow and roto-till it will be o.k., (it isn’t that bad).  The car seems to rattle a little more than it used to, (but it still runs good  and I do live in Springdale, all our cars rattle!).  To be honest I haven’t been very ambitious.  Then I started to think of the verse in 2 Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”  Is it my ambition to “please God” ?  The passage talks about going to heaven or staying longer here on earth.  We have had several people recently go to be with the Lord, the Bible says: “they are at home with the Lord”.  The hidden truth given in this passage is that when we get to heaven we will be with the Lord; but it will not be a time like we have heard so many people talk about heaven.  Uncle Bob is playing golf in heaven; or fishing in heaven, or whatever his favorite activity was.  Grandma is resting in heaven, knitting in heaven (?).  Heaven is going to be home, like we have never felt at home before.  But we will also be living with and serving our God, not by faith, but in His presence. 

The verse also says that now, while we are still on earth in these bodies it should be our ambition “to please the Lord”.   Colossians 3:23-24 tells us “to do all things heartily, as unto the Lord rather than for men knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord whom you serve.” You mean it’s not my employer for wages, it not for my parents, for my friends, etc……It is the Lord whom you serve”.  Whom are you trying to please?  Is it your ambition to please the Lord?  We all love to get a raise for a job well done.  We all love to be appreciated by others when we sacrifice so much for them to have a better life.  How much more should our ambition be to be pleasing to the Lord.  I was talking to a young man the other day and we were talking about movies. In the movie Chariots of Fire (my personal favorite); I remember Eric Liddle running in the 1924 Olympics and winning the Gold medal. He said, God made me to run, and when I run I feel God’s Pleasure” Have you ever felt God’s pleasure?  Eric ran for God’s glory…..to “please the Lord”.  If a man can do that running, we can do that with our lives to.  The key in not the activity, but the ambition or the motive.  I want to be ambitious for God.  I can’t blame the weather, I can’t blame others, I will one day face the Lord, and He knows what is on my heart (or why I do what I do).  Is it all about me?  Is my ambition to please the Lord and just feel His Pleasure ….for “it is the Lord whom you serve?”

In Awe of Him

Sonny