tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57749022011-04-21T16:14:16.417-07:00A Pastor's PerspectiveA Weekly Sermonette from Mike Kozowski Senior Pastor of Chehalis Foursquare Churchdeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comBlogger231100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1137363658753510522006-01-15T14:07:00.000-08:002006-01-15T14:21:41.270-08:00The Children of your sevants will live in Your presence; their descendants will be established before you. Psalm 102.28Anymore it seems that a nearly unending pattern of greed, insecurity, selfishness and ambition are excused with the effective but misleading mantra of, "We're doing what's best for the children." Of course, very little, if any, of it truly works for the children's "best," but it deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1108327719969652522005-02-13T12:38:00.000-08:002005-02-13T12:48:39.970-08:00"I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God.Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ...." Colossians 2:2 The MessageThe plain fact of the matter is God wants us to know Him, and we're often intent on going off in another direction entirely, pursuing something else. This leads to a condition which many of us know quite well--deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1096244703866332572004-09-26T16:58:00.000-07:002004-09-26T17:26:19.380-07:00"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." Galatains 6:9-10
What an encouraging word this is! The Apostle Paul was exhorting the believers in Galatia to remember their calling and their purpose. He was deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1095034163754880632004-09-12T16:59:00.000-07:002004-09-12T17:09:23.756-07:00"In putting everything under Him, God left nothing that is not subject to Him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to Him. But we see Jesus..." Hebrews 2:8
One of the challenges that confronts us as Christian believers is to keep a proper perspective in our thinking, So many of the events which we witness, or the difficulties which threaten us, or just the fears which we encounter ondeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1094483652935731692004-09-06T08:03:00.000-07:002004-09-06T08:14:12.936-07:00"If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." Romans 5:5-7
Jesus didn't mince words: He was straightforward when He said "Ifdeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1093203591376689412004-08-22T12:27:00.000-07:002004-08-22T14:29:55.723-07:00"I will not enter my house or go to my bed: I will allow no sleep to my eyes, no slumber to my eyelids, till I find a place for the Lord, a swelling for the mighty One of Jacob." Psalm 132:3-5
hen David wrote these words he was specifically referring to the building of the temple. Later the Lord was to tell him that he wouldn't build the temple, but that his Son would. Yet it gives us a real deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1083591957597886442004-05-03T06:30:00.000-07:002004-05-03T06:48:59.200-07:00"But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." James 1:6-8
At first glance, this seems like a very hard scripture. It can leave us feeling like there's something wrong with us. "I'm double-minded and that's why deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1079448311478873682004-03-16T06:36:00.000-08:002004-03-16T06:48:49.716-08:00"The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad . . . Righteousness and truth are the foundation of His throne." Psalm 97:1,2
It's easy to forget how great God is. It's easy to take a time out from our focus on Him to concentrate for a moment on our own lives. Sometimes it seems like the only way to get things done. But, it never works out like we thought it would. Whenever we take our eyes off Him, deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1077031209981789262004-02-17T07:10:00.000-08:002004-02-17T07:24:10.873-08:00"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10
We are taught from a very early age that we must work for what we want. While this is adequate advice for many things, if we're not careful it will frustrate our desire to have a relationship with Jesus. This is because you don't work to achieve a relationship. You work as a result of a relationship. We cannot earn or merit our salvation; but we deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1076427385323244212004-02-10T07:26:00.000-08:002004-02-10T08:10:57.310-08:00"The Lord is my strength and shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped . . . The Lord is the strength of His people . . ." Psalm 28:7,8
As future generations look back through the lens of history, I believe they will see the season in which we live as a time when the Church of Jesus Christ was led astray by the gospel of Self. Never before in history has the church so mixed the worldly deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1074612378474070422004-01-20T07:25:00.000-08:002004-01-20T07:29:09.496-08:00"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3
Imagine what it was like to be in that crowd as they heard the words of the Savior for the first time. Crushed, rejected, despised and overborne by the world, the heart and message of Jesus began to trickle into their awareness, until, like a flood, they were overwhelmed by His proclamation of redemption and hopedeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1074612263284216302004-01-20T07:15:00.001-08:002004-01-20T07:25:49.233-08:00"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3
Imagine what it was like to be in that crowd as they heard the words of the Savior for the first time. Crushed, rejected, despised and overborne by the world,the heart and message of Jesus began to trickle into their awareness, until,like a flood, they were overwhelmed by His proclamation of redemption and hope.
deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1074612154465472742004-01-20T07:15:00.000-08:002004-01-20T07:24:00.436-08:00"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3
Imagine what it was like to be in that crowd as they heard the words of the Savior for the first time. Crushed, rejected, despised and overborne by the world,the heart and messageof Jesus began to trickle into their awareness, until,like a flood, they were overwhelmed by HIs proclamation of redemption and hope.
deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1072104553365904592003-12-22T06:49:00.000-08:002003-12-22T06:50:10.216-08:00Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord. (Zechariah 4:6)
The desire to be adequate to meet our own needs comes naturally to us. The difficulty, of course, is that it is impossible. Even on an earthly level we are entirely dependent on the labor and interests of others for our personal needs to be met. The food you eat is mostly (if not altogether) raised and produced by othersdeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1071501925097873572003-12-15T07:25:00.000-08:002003-12-15T07:26:15.450-08:00Do not make any gods to be alongside Me. (Exodus 20:23
The Hebrew word which is translated here "alongside" is the word eth. It's a preposition, which, you may recall, is a word which shows relationship. For instance, in the sentences, "I put my glass in the sink"; or "I knelt beside my bed to pray," in and beside are prepositions; they show the relationship of the subject to the object. I don'tdeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1070466012563433072003-12-03T07:40:00.000-08:002003-12-03T07:40:50.793-08:00What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. (Isaiah 45:11)
Idols are fashioned whenever we attempt to make God in our own image. Therefore, it isn't the medium of construction (wood or stone; money or career), but the meaning behind the medium which is critical. You can't get off the hook of personal idolatry simply because you don't practice physically bowingdeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1068566315727035762003-11-11T07:58:00.000-08:002003-11-11T08:00:41.380-08:00But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His Mercy. (Titus 3:4)
It's so easy, over the course of time, to forget what the real basis of our salvation is. We come to Christ, and we gladly receive His blessing and forgiveness, but over time we become confused in our thinking. We begin to add things to the deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1067265398548574172003-10-27T06:36:00.000-08:002003-10-27T06:41:55.703-08:00Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
We owe a great deal to people who, like Habakkuk, are willing to ask the hard questions. Why does God allow deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1066659172913405192003-10-20T07:12:00.000-07:002003-10-20T07:15:23.740-07:00Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6)
What a beautiful verse! In it Jesus has captured for us the sense of unutterable longing to put off the old garments of this life, so that we may put on the new garments of an immortal and incorruptible life. No longer do we have to think in vain upon the desire to be righteous; we now live in the deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1065380895101242682003-10-05T12:08:00.000-07:002003-10-05T12:08:15.123-07:00Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. "You of little faith," He said, "why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:31)
Several things could be said about Peter's attempt to walk to Jesus on the water. In sinking we could say he lacked faith, or his pride drove him to try, or his presumption lead him to get in over his head, or perhaps he just didn't know his own limits.
It really doesn't deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1063592361293904942003-09-14T19:19:00.000-07:002003-09-14T19:22:15.960-07:00But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. (Phillippians 3:7-8)
Paul had learned the key to life in Christ; we must die before we can live. This truth so profoundly changed his life that throughout his entire deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1062998474844118772003-09-07T22:21:00.000-07:002003-09-14T19:22:32.960-07:00Why, O Lord, do You stand far off? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1)
In the midst of a passage like this, we find the power and instruction of the book of Psalms. The Psalmist blazes the trail ahead of us as we pursue our life in Christ. He helps us to give voice to the grief and frustration, the doubt and the longing, we all feel in the deep places of our soul. He deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5774902.post-1062824557321061512003-09-05T22:02:00.000-07:002003-09-05T22:02:37.363-07:00testingdeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231286673176142169noreply@blogger.com