Keeping Promises                         August 30th, 2009

Did anyone ever tell you they would do something for you and it never got done? Tell you they’d come
by to help you out at 2:00 and never show up or call? Make a promise and then lie to you?  

Did you ever count on someone for support when you needed it the most and found out that the friend
was not in a position to sponsor that support for you?  Have you ever read a brochure about a vacation
spot you were anxious to go to and when you got there that the one “modern” facility offered in the
photograph was occupied?  If any of these situations have ever happened to you, then you know well
what it is like to be disillusioned or deceived.

“But you promised” I could still hear my daughter’s sigh.  But I always (in the back of my mind) knew my
reply. Yet another broken promise. I knew I probably did promise, but with my hectic work schedule,
running here and there to ensure the family stayed in order; simply life stuff.  We break promises all the
time because ….... well, because we’re human.  

God however ALWAYS keeps his promises.  This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of
Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.  Haggai 2:5

God kept this promise for almost a thousand years. God is still in the business of keeping his promise to
us, just as it was true for the exiled Jews in captivity so many years past.  God knows that we are more
apt to be skeptical that believing.  Yet we remain gullible and vulnerable.  He knows that even with the
intense conditioning that most of us have had, we want to find an honest friend whom we can trust – one
that will not lie.  We need not rely on others to keep their promises.  God can be to us that friend –For we
still have God to keep his promises to us every day – do not fear!  God DOES NOT lie.

18God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have
fled to take hold of the hope offered to us, may be greatly encouraged. Hebrews 6:18

Allow God to be that Friend that will not lie or break a promise….

PRAYER:  Lord, help me be encouraged and always live according to Your Word.  Help me to live by the
promises of the life that now is, and of the one to come.  Lord, help me to accept that in our human-ness
promises will be broken by others.  Guide me to live in a godly manner that so that I can receive the
promises You have to offer me in this life and the one yet to come.  Amen!



The Wicker Basket                August 23rd, 2009

The story is told of an old man who lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Kentucky with his young
grandson. Each morning, Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading from his old worn-out
Bible. His grandson who wanted to be just like him tried to imitate him in any way he could.

One day the grandson asked, “Papa, I try to read the Bible just like you but I don't understand it, and
what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bible do?” The
Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and said, “Take this old wicker coal basket
down to the river and bring back a basket of water.”

The boy did as he was told, even though all the water leaked out before he could get back to the house.
The grandfather laughed and said, “You will have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to
the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the old wicker basket was
empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was “impossible to carry
water in a basket,” and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, “I don't want a bucket of
water; I want a basket of water. You can do this. You're just not trying hard enough,” and he went out the
door to watch the boy try again.

At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran
as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got far at all. The boy scooped the water and ran
hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, “See
Papa, it's useless!”

“So you think it is useless?” The old man said, “Look at the basket.”

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket looked different. Instead of
a dirty old wicker coal basket, it was clean!

'”Son, that's what happens when you read the Bible. You might not understand or remember everything,
but when you read it, it will change you from the inside out.”

Moral of the wicker basket story: Take time to read a portion of God's word each day; it will affect you
for good even if you don't retain a word ~ from the inside out.

I really like this story because I don't remember things like I used to...but then I believe God isn't
concerned about my brain anyway, He's more concerned about my heart.

1 Peter 2:2
2As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

PRAYER:  Dear Heavenly Father as we allow your Word to come into our lives and our hearts, let us take
what we need each day and praise you for what we do get from these scriptures and blessings, and grow.
Amen
                                                                              


Obstacles and Opportunities                August 16, 2009

The story is told of an old Scottish fisherman who was having afternoon tea with some friends in a little
tearoom b the sea. As he was describing some of his fishing exploits of the day, his hand accidentally
knocked over his cup of tea.  An ugly brown stain appeared on the freshly whitewashed wall besides him.
“Never mind about the stain” said a friend and rose from his chair with a brown crayon in his hand he
had taken from his pocket.  There emerged from the ugly, brown tea stain a magnificent stag with antlers
spread and back arched. You see, the fisherman’s friend was one of England’s most famous painters.
Life is full of ugly tea stains that splash against the whitewashed walls of our reality.  For some of us,
“Reality” often seems to be more obstacle than opportunity, more pain than pleasure, more chaos than
calm, more hurt than happiness, more tension than tenderness.  But if I interpret Romans 8:28 correctly, I
must believe that as a spiritual Christian person God uses everything in my life to make me more like HIM.

Together, he and I can take the tea stains in my life and make something out of them.  We can take the
chaos and be calm, take the tension and be tender, take the hurts and be content, take the obstacles in
our lives and build opportunities.  That is what God offers from life.
And when God says that is what he can do for me, only my un-belief would keep me from experiencing
it.  If the Christian life is worth living, then God is worth believing – and with that, there is no end to the
possibilities!

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have
been called according to his purpose.

John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have
trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

PRAYER:  Father God as we are pressed with the obstacles and opportunities of our daily life allow us to
bring these burdens to you in our faithfulness for answers.  Amen



NEW ENDINGS ~ Dealing with the Past                 August 9th, 2009

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can make a new ending”    Carl Bard

So many of us spend a lot of time analyzing the bad decisions we’ve made in our lives, the mistakes we’
ve made and the friends we believe we may have hurt along the way.  Perhaps our childhood memories
bring more hurt than inspiration. We often times think things like “if only we’d been smarter, more
patient, wiser about money or just kinder.”  But the realization is we just can’t change the past, no matter
how much we analyze it.

But we can move forward in new ways; make better decisions; avoid making the same old mistakes; rise
above the past and make a difference – be nicer to those around us.  We have countless opportunities
everyday to make the decisions to create the endings of old ways and start anew.  Remember this,
Spiritual life come from the spirit.  Our parents may have given us the genes, but God gives us grace.      
It is our responsibility to turn our lives into the grace that God would want ~ daily.  

Romans 8:28  We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him.                       
They are the people he called because that was his plan.

Psalm 43:5  Why am I so sad?  Why am I so upset?
I should put my hope in God and keep praising him, my Savior and my God.

Philippians 3:13-14  I know that I have not yet reached that goal, but there is one thing I always do.  
Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize
for which God called me through Christ to the life above.

PRAYER:  Lord God allow us to let go of the past and move into your grace, toward the prize waiting
each of us by your side.   Amen

Prayer
with
Diana
Black Canyon Community Church
SonShine Learning Center
Black Canyon City, Arizona