Any New Things Lately?

Seen any new things happening in your life today? If your answer is no, you need to wake up and smell the roses. There are "new things" happening all the time all around you. and most of them are GOOD! Sure bad stuff does happen to good people, but most of the time good things are happening, we just fail to see them and learn and appreciate them. What a shame!

God is re-creating your world almost every moment. Our challenge is to look ahead with hope and promise. Sometimes though, we are afraid to look ahead with promise and possibility because we wonder if life today or tomorrow will be any better than life yesterday?

In Isaiah 43 God is about to bring His chosen people back to their land from captivity in Babylon. On the doorstep of freedom they think back to when God released them from captivity in Egypt. They wonder if things will ever be as good as they were in the past?

Isaiah 43:16-21 (The Message) This is what God says,  the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, The God who summons horses and chariots and armies— they lie down and then can't get up; they're snuffed out like so many candles:"Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. Wild animals will say 'Thank you!' —the coyotes and the buzzards—Because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sun-baked earth, Drinking water for the people I chose,  the people I made especially for myself, a people custom-made to praise me.

God has to remind them through the prophet Isaiah, that their Creator is always in the process of making things new for those who trust and believe.

This is our contemporary lesson form this peak into history.

• Do you believe that today can be a new day for you?
• Do you enter into the day with the expectation that there is something useful and helpful to learn, if you simply look around you and observe?

If you do and if you can, you are well on your way to attracting all the good you deserve. Go for it! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Blessings

Rev. Bill McBride

What Comes First?

Living and Giving, what does come first in a successful life? The world tells us to live it up and live first and then give of what you have left or from your success. Now practically, this seems appropriate because how can we give of what we do not have and possess?


But things do fall apart when we think we first have to live; achieve it, earn it, amass it, acquire it, win it or find it before we will give.

You hear it said a lot; "You know when my ship comes in, then I will really make a big gift to my church." Or, "I can't give any of my time, talent, and treasure now because I do not have any thing to give. So, I will wait till later." AND later never comes.

There is a spiritual law in the universe that runs the way we live and the results we get whether we believe it or follow it or not. We've talked about this law many times before; it is called the "Law of Sowing and Reaping." (Galatains 6:3) So in order to really live and receive we have to first give and share.

By giving we are talking about giving our money to a good cause, giving our time to make that cause work and giving our talent to bring value on board for the success of that cause.

By giving we are also talking about our money a lot too. As a person once said, if you want to know what is really important in your life, just take a tally of what you have spent your money on in the past six months.


Living and Giving go hand in hand. As it says in the Bible in 2 Corinthians 8 "First they gave themselves to God and then to us." We give to a higher order of life; toward the spiritual side of life and we give to others. One really good way to do that is in and through the church. When we do that according to the universal laws, we then can really live! Guaranteed.

Blessings in your Giving and Living this week.

Rev. Bill McBride

Thinking and Becoming

Consider how strongly connected your mind and your thinking is to what you experience and do. When it comes to doing extraordinary things; our theme for this week, we often think and say "Well, I can't do anything extraordinary. I'll stick with the ordinary. Let's leave the extraordinary to Jesus and his miracles or at the very least those special few really gifted individuals."

But that is not how God wants to work today with you. God wants to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things.


What extraordinary thing is God wanting to do with ordinary you this week?

In fact, listen carefully, you are only just a thought away from extraordinary things. Yes you are! "Cogito ergo sum" - "I think, therefore I am" is a philosophical statement in Latin used by René Descartes. If you can think then you can become. And when it comes to our Creator, the sky is really the only limit.

What did these ordinary people end up doing?


We are the ones who limit God working in and through our lives. God does want to do extraordinary things in our lives and for others through us. Miracles are not just for the Bible days any more.

Three lessons come to us from scripture; especially in the extraordinary story of the feeding of the five thousand in Mark 6:30-44.

1. Use what you have right now today. Don't wait for something special to come your way before you make use of the time, talent and gifts you already have.


2. Commit what you have right now to God. Give God the credit for all the good things given to you and that come to you.


3. Expect great things to happen for you, to you and through you for others.

More great things would be seen in our lives and in our world if we all said and thought this: "I Can." As the wise sage said, "The people who say 'I Can' and 'I Can't' are both right."

Blessing to you.

Have an extraordinary week.

Reverend Bill McBride