Snow Days

We had our first snowfall for this winter season last weekend.    For several days, schools were closed and grocery stores were over-run with folks buying foodstuffs like they would not come back till Spring.  Amid the  things that accompanied the snow were good reminders for me  such as the following:

• What a thing of beauty is most anything in God’s creation when God transforms it through ice and snow
• I am blessed  being a part of the life of a church and sorely miss when I do not have the chance to worship
• I  so enjoy the company of my wife, Ann Wall, and the opportunity the snow gave me to spend alone time with her
• I am so grateful for those persons that keep the electricity on in our community especially in a winter storm
• I am thankful for those who keep working when others of us are not like those persons restoring power or running the snowplows down our roads
• It is so good to curl up in a warm place with a good book

What good reminders or lessons did the recent snow storm provide you?   I encourage you to discover your own.    Have a joy-filled week.- Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   Living and loving God,  fresh as a new fallen snow is your love and grace each day.  Give me eyes to discover this day the gifts this day offers;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.    

Paying Taxes

It is almost that time of year.  Tax time, that is.    It seems only yesterday that I was pay my property taxes for 2015, and here I am getting things together to file my federal and state income taxes.    Though I try to approach all things with hope and anticipation, it is no more fun for the husband of a professional tax preparer to get his tax information together than anyone else.

In an effort to change my poor attitude about paying and filing taxes, I decided to look at what I could see in the Bible about such things.    In Luke 20, I found this story about Jesus and taxes:

²⁰ Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. ²¹ So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. ²² Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  ²³ He saw through their duplicity and said to them, ²⁴ “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”  “Caesar’s,” they replied.  ²⁵ He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

  

This passage of scripture confronted me with a bigger and more important issue and it is this:   I need to come face to face not so much with giving honor to Caesar and paying taxes, but I need to come face to face with that struggle that goes inside me daily on giving honor and glory to God.      While the image of the latest American Caesar might be on our money, there is an image also imprinted on you and I.  That image on us is the image of God.    How am I doing daily giving glory, honor, and praise to God?   Have a good week.--  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   Holy God, grant that I might this day give myself more fully and completely to you;  through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  

January Blooms

There is  a starkness in what I see in the world around me in these days of January.  Gone are the beautiful lights of Christmas from homes and the countryside.  Our home is barren of the Christmas tree with gifts in colored paper beneath it.    The sounds of happy laughter  from Christmas guests and expressions of glee as gifts are open are heard no more in our home.   The foliage of trees and plants  outside my window are a memory from yesterday and a hope for the future.     As I stare outside my window on this cold January day, a smile comes to my face as I see the yellow and black blooms of pansies.    Despite the cold winds and plunging temperatures, they add beauty and color to the stark countryside.    As I see the pansies on this January day, I recall these words from Isaiah 35:1-2 where we read:

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, ² it will burst into bloom;
    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
    the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
    the splendor of our God.

I love pansies.  They are a welcome sight on a cold January day as is a crocus blooming in the desert.  Like the countryside I see outside my window on this January day, the world of 2016  seems so barren and dark. Oh, to be like the pansies and the crocus and to bloom with the love and grace of God.  Let it be, Lord.  Let it be in and through me.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   O Lord and God, thank you for this day and this season of the year.  This day and every day, may your love that resides in my heart be known through my words and deeds;  through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.   

Simeon and Anna

Many of us love to hear and read the story of the birth of Jesus found in Luke’s gospel.    Most of us stop our reading fairly quickly after Jesus is born and  miss what happened a few days later in the temple.  Read these words from Luke 2:

²⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.²⁷ Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸ Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
    you may now dismiss^[d] your servant in peace.
³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation,
³¹     which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and the glory of your people Israel.”

³³ The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”  ³⁶ There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷ and then was a widow until she was eighty-four.^[e] She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. ³⁸ Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.   ³⁹ When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. ⁴⁰ And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

In the early days of this new year, these are important words for me to read.   What stands out in this story about Jesus’ first trip to the temple is that Simeon and Anna have the spiritual wisdom to see that this child in Mary’s arms is the Messiah, the Christ.    As this new year stands fresh before us, my prayer for myself is that (like Simeon and Anna) I will have the wisdom to see God in my midst and that I also will seek to make God seen.  Happy 2016 to one and all.  -  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   O God, you are alpha and omega, beginning and the end.  Give us eyes to see you and make you seen in the places we live and move each and every day;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.