NO MORE

Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

There are some things that it seems like you can never have enough of. Friends, good times, blessings are just a few I can name. I might throw in ice cream and a few other goodies too. There are some things that I have had plenty of and would just as soon not have any more.
I have seen sorrow in the hearts of others and felt the tears of loss enough in my life that I look forward to the time when God shall wipe away my tears for the last time. I have knelt by the graves of friends as I grasped for the right words to ask God to comfort their family and friends as well myself as we said our final goodbyes. I look forward to the time when there will be no more death.
I have known sorrow and crying enough to last the rest of my life, however long that might be. I've had pain and ministered to others in pain that I could not even imagine, both physical and mental anguish that is just as real and I can only imagine a time and place where there will be no more pain.
There is such a place and all the former things that have hurt us will pass away because God has a place for us that is free of sin. It certainly is exciting to think about that place and it should put a longing in our heart to be there, with our Creator and our Savior.

PRAY WITHOUT CEASING

1st Thessolonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing. (18) In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

I noticed the sign by a gas station. Now you have to pay for air for your tires from these stations. There was a time when places that sold gas were called service stations and they lived up to the name. You could pull up to the gas pumps, and at least one person and sometimes several would come out to your car and pump your gas, clean your windshield and check the air pressure in your tires. If you needed air it was free.
It is still a little hard for me to accept the fact that people charge you for air. I know that air is precious. Without air we would suffocate and die.
This is not news to you. It is something that everyone knows. You have to breathe to stay alive. Did you ever think about what it takes to stay alive spiritually. Prayer to the spirit is like air to the body. When we fail to pray we fail begin to suffocate spiritually.
One of the worst memories I have is of having congestive heart failure and having to struggle to breath. Even though I was pretty well sedated I can remember the struggle and having to fight for every breath. It was a truly miserable feeling. I have also had times in my spiritual life where I had to struggle to pray. They were times when I had let my prayer life falter and was not as close to God as I should have been. I wanted to pray, I needed to pray, but I had to force myself to pray. It was even a more terrible experience than the congestive heart failure.
Prayer is something that comes much easier if we do it continuously. Sometimes we might not know how to pray or what to pray for but I think it is important for us to pray. We certainly want to breathe without ceasing, so we should want to pray without ceasing. And God doesn't charge us for either the air, or the prayer.

BEWARE

(For awhile on weekends we will be posting some devotionals from the archives (re-runs). It is good to be reminded of things from time to time. This will also allow us to at least put something up every day.)

Lu 12:15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and BEWARE of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

Beware, or be aware, mean the same thing. When I was a young boy, (many, many years ago) we had someone from the railroad come and talk to the class about Railroad Crossing Safety. He said that there were three things we should always do, Stop, Look and Listen. That has always stuck with me. I never race trains at railroad crossings because a tie is still a loss.
There are things in life that can cause us as much spiritual damage as a fast train. In the verse of scripture above Jesus told us to beware of covetousness. I am sure we have all been guilty of seeing someone with something and wishing it was ours instead of theirs, after all, don't we deserve it as much or more than they do? If we are completely honest with ourselves we would have to admit that God has truly blessed us materially with more than we deserve.
Life seems to be an accumulation of things, of materials, of posessions. We seem to measure our success in life on how much stuff we can accumulate. I am beginning to learn that the more stuff I have, the more I have to maintain and keep up. If we invest our lives in others and in serving the Lord we can are truly rich beyond measure.
A group of men were talking at a party once when a very prominent and wealthy man entered the room. One of the men mentioned wealthy he was and how industrious he was and that he just kept getting richer all the time. One of the men commented that he had something that the rich man would probably never have. The men in the group looked at him questionably and he smiled and said, "I have enough."
The greatest wealth in the world is being thankful for the blessings we have. Stop and think about how God has blessed you. Look to Him to supply your needs according to His riches in Glory. Listen to His word and His promises concerning the blessings that are yet to come that we can not even imagine.

ASK DIRECTIONS

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.(6) In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Some people don't like to ask directions and some people don't like to give directions. If you are on a trip and looking for some place explicit you are more likely to find it if you ask directions. When you ask directions you are better off if a person will just admit they don't know either than if they just act like they know where the place you are looking for is.
I once read of a man who stopped and asked a farmer "How far is it to (a certain city)?" The farmer looked at him and said, "In the direction your going I'd say about 25,000 miles." He was just like we are sometimes, going in the wrong direction."
Directions are not that hard now with the OnStar and other GPS instruments that you can put in a vehicle. You can just put in the destination and it gives you step by step directions.
In our spiritual walk we sometimes get turned around and are going completely in the wrong direction, or almost as bad we wander aimlessly. That is when we need to stop and ask directions. God knows when we are wandering and he will let us know by convicting us with His Spirit but when He does I believe He wants us to stop and ask Him for directions. He wants to direct our path.

SOMEONE TO TALK TO

bY Jeremy Burkes

1John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

I saw a sign on the wall where I work that read:"Hello this is God. I will be handling all your problems today, and I will not need any help from you."
All of us have problems from time to time. Our friends and co-workers have problems too. When someone comes to us to talk about a problem ,many times we are too busy to listen. We make up excuses. We suddenly have somewhere to go or something we need to be doing. That's not being much of a friend. We need to remember that sometimes it is us who needs a friend.
Make an extra effort to listen to the problems of others. After you listen to their problem, keep it between the two of you. Everyone doesn't need to know everything.
Whether it is your problem or a friends you should take it to God first. He can give you wisdom to deal with your own problems or to help a friend with theirs. Remember that sometimes we all need a friend to talk to.
Another thing to remember is that God doesn't need our help. We need his.Listen to your friends and talk to your friends. You never can tell, you might be going through some of the same things.

Hopefully we will be back on our regular schedule of posting a devotional Monday through Friday. Thanks for all your prayers and concern the past couple of weeks.

GREAT INVESTMENTS

Joel 1:3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
One of the greatest joys I have known in my life is teaching. I am not talking about standing before a class and giving a lecture, actually I'm probably not very good at that. I am talking about taking someone who is eager to learn about something I know and teaching them everything I can.
I think many older people miss a lot by not sharing their knowledge with those younger or less experienced. It can come as a kind of shock. I was at a pastor's retreat once and was sitting at a table with a lot of young preachers. I really just thought we were fellowshiping and carrying on a conversation when one of them said, "I hope you know how much we appreciate you older preachers taking time to share your experience with us." It was then that I realized two things. The first was that I was now one of the older preachers. The second was that the young are eager for someone to take an interest in them and help them along.
It doesn't have to be ministry related. If you have a skill or a talent you can share your knowledge and experience and it will mean a lot to someone. Teaching a child to fish is a great experience for both the teacher and the pupil. It opens the doors to share your spiritual experiences.
My grandson has been watching me do some drawing and illustrating and he borrows my pads, pencils and art books. (He can go through a $4 sketch pad in about an hour. I have started letting him use copy paper most of the time.) It thrills me that he is interested and I bought him a beginners book on drawing. Having something that we share an interest in is wonderful and it will give us time together to share spiritual things as well.
Find someone and share your knowledge with them. It is one of the best investments you will ever make.

Just a note to thank everyone for your prayers. I am doing well and hope to be back on a regular posting schedule on Thursday Feb. 12.

ALL THINGS

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

This is a difficult verse but it is one that I have depended on to get me over the rough spots of my life. It is a verse that you have to believe applies to the things in your own life before you really can sincerely share it with someone else going through a bad time.

Some years ago my daughter was in a head on collision and was in the hospital and I still wasn't sure exactly what her condition was. It happened on a Saturday afternoon and while still waiting to find out exactly how serious it was I preached a sermon from this verse. I had shared it with others when they were going through extreme difficulty and I felt if I really belived it (and I do) I had to preach it when it applied to me too. Thankfully my daughter recovered from the accident but I feel that I grew in faith as I depended on the Lord to get us through.

There have been many illnesses and difficulties in my life but I know that all things (not some things) work together for good to them that love God.That certainly must be true because life is really good.

There might be a break int the posting of these devotionals for awhile. I will be having surgery sometime soon (I should find out when tomorrow) and I haven't been able to make arrangements for anyone to upload my devotionals. Please keep checking and I will have them posted when I can, as often as I can. Thank you for your prayers and patience.