No hope

Posted on October 4, 2012 by PastorBobLifeGate

King Hezekiah of Judah lived in Jerusalem where the Assyrians had placed a siege. He was out numbered, low on food and water, and up against the most ruthless army around at that time. 2 Kings 19 records this amazing story in history of how one man can made a difference. Hezekiah had brought reforms to Judah and led his people back to the Lord. But the storms of life still came. He was faced with an impossible situation. There was no hope, except in God. God did the impossible and delivered his people.

God can do the impossible in your life as well. He is not limited to you limitations, he is not confined to your resources. He is all-powerful and wants to work in your life. Give Him a chance. Seek Him with your whole heart and watch what he does. Pastor Bob

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God does the significant during the insignificant times.

Posted on September 13, 2012 by PastorBobLifeGate

The life of David teaches us many principles. For example, when Saul failed as king, the prophet Samuel was sent to Jesse to anoint one of his sons as king. David was the youngest of eight brothers and wasn’t even there among the brothers to be given the chance to be picked by Samuel. After Samuel had gone through all the other seven brothers and God didn’t pick any of them, David was brought in…from taking care of sheep. The Lord said, “He’s the one.”

This is where the story is kind of funny. What did David do then? I’ll tell you what he didn’t do. He didn’t enroll at the local community college to take some leadership courses since he was going to be king. He didn’t go get a new wardrobe to look more kingly. He went back to taking care of sheep. Here is the point. David learned the significant during the seemly insignificant time of taking care of sheep. What did he learn?

He learned about faithfulness and hanging in there when things are tough. He learned about dependence on God. He fought the bear and the lion and would use that personal history to give him courage to stand against Goliath when no one else could. 

Imagine the prayer life he developed under the stars every night. His relationship with God would be the strength that would carry him through his life. It was this foundation during his insignificant time of taking care of sheep that he would learn significant life lessons.

That is true of our lives as well. We learn life lessons doing things that may not be our calling if we let the Lord teach us. Have a great day. Pastor Bob

 

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Ascribe to the Lord Glory and Strength Psalms 29

Posted on July 12, 2012 by PastorBobLifeGate

The success of our Christian lives depends on our relationship with the Lord. Psalms 29 speaks of ascribing to the Lord glory and strength. What that means is that when we recognize who our God is, something happens. The struggles we have no longer seem so big because we serve a powerful God. When we pray we pray to that powerful God. It is easy to believe for answers to prayer when your God is big enough.  

Remember our God is a faith God. He responds to faith. Hebrews 11:6 says that it is impossible to please God without faith. So when we pray believe that God hears you. If he hears you then there is a good chance He will answer your prayer.

Recognize who you are serving. Then be determined to get to know our God. PB  

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Growing fruit

Posted on April 12, 2012 by PastorBobLifeGate

The hardest part of my day is being me. My wife has it so easy since she gets to be her. She doesn’t know how hard it is to be me. “Practice kindness,” she says. Easy for her to say, she’s….well…her. She doesn’t have the flash temper like me. She wakes up in the morning and is just happy…at least once she has her coffee. Things go wrong and she says, “it will be okay.”

I must admit that I struggle to let the fruit of the Spirit grow in my life. Last week I struggle to praise God while I sent 3 hours getting to work because of an accident on the turnpike. But God is working in me helping me to go beyond wha

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Ouch

Posted on April 10, 2012 by PastorBobLifeGate

Sunday I began the adventure of seeing if I could fit in one of my suits. I have 3 suits…from this century.  I refuse to buy any more suits at my present Sumo wrestling weight. Sunday was the day that I reached the max…actually beyond max of one of the suits to contain my growing belly. It was a sad day. Something had to change or nothing was going to fit.

Week after week, I had blown off working out because of injuries and not wanting to try anything new. The day of reckoning had arrived…I reckon I had better do something.

At the same time, I had been thinking about buying a new lap top. I travel all the time and the one I had was six years old and had been dropped hard twice. Everything still worked…most of the time but the day was approaching when…well, you know…it would pass…and all the pictures, sermons, etc. with it.   So I ventured to the Apple Store to buy…an apple. Thirty minutes later, I was the proud owner of a new computer.

I get it home and unwrap it expecting it to have life changing qualities. Being the tech savvy guy that I am I discover quickly that the new macs don’t display the hard drive on the desk top. What kind of #$% would do that. Forty-five minutes later we find (my son-in-law) out how to display it on the desktop.

Then I notice there is no iMovie or idvd. I finally figure out how to display iMovie and load some video clips. I just wanted to see if idvd worked. iMovie was so different and there was no idvd program. You have to buy it separately. All the changes irritated me so much that in the morning I was going to take the computer back.

Then the Lord showed me that change is sometimes painful. It is that way spiritually. We get comfortable in our spiritual routine and become resistant to change…God’s change. Yes, it hurts (I am sore today from working out with weights yesterday) to change, but change is necessary or we become obsolete and unnecessary. I don’t want to be obsolete like an old 8 track tape player (some of you don’t even know what that is). I want God to use me now. I want to be pliable in His hands to make all the changes He wants to make in me. Let God change you. It hurts but it is worth it. Pastor Bob

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The voice of the Lord

Posted on April 9, 2012 by PastorBobLifeGate

The “Voice of the Lord” is an interesting study. We see it used first in Genesis 3:8 where Adam and Eve are hiding from the Lord after they have sinned. The NIV translates it the sound of the Lord. We see the “Voice of the Lord” used next in Deut. 5:25, where Moses reiterates the 10 commandments to the children of Israel. Then he reminds them of how they were afraid of the Lord and asked Moses  to have God speak only to him. Then Moses could tell them what God said.

There is a message in this fear that the children of Israel had. Back in the garden, Adam only became afraid of the Lord and hid when he sinned. The children of the Israel were constantly sinning and thus were afraid of the Lord. A sinful life creates a flawed relationship with God and thus damages our communication and communion with God. That is why the Apostle John tells us to confess our sins to God (I John 1:9) With sin out of the way we can restore our relationship with God.

We need to have the voice of the Lord in our lives. He needs to have open communication with us. Get sin out of the way and let God speak to you. Pastor Bob

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Easter

Posted on April 7, 2012 by PastorBobLifeGate

Easter is tomorrow. Families will celebrate with huge meals. What a wonderful time to celebrate. Spring is in the air and the flowers are blooming. We are excited about getting out of the house in the beautiful weather.

Easter is also the time of the spiritual spring. People go to church for the first time of the year…maybe the only time since last year…at Easter. But why go to church at all? What does it really mean to go to church? The women get to show off their new dresses. The men are proud of their fancy cars and want everyone to see them in the parking lot. But is that all there is?

It is my prayer that this Easter…the resurrected Christ will have new meaning in your life. The power of the resurrection will come alive to you and you will grow in that personal relationship with the Savior. Have fun tomorrow, but remember the significance of the day. God bless. Pastor Bob 

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The Vine

Posted on February 7, 2012 by PastorBobLifeGate

Jesus tells us in John 15:1 that He is the vine and we are the branches. He continues by telling us that we cannot do anything by ourselves. To bear fruit or be successful as a Christian, we have to remain in Him. That is hard sometimes because we try to leave our Christian lives without Christ. Sounds kind of dumb but  we do. I know I do.

Jesus tells us in verse 7 that if we remain in Him and His words remain in us, we can ask whatever we wish, and it will be given to us. The tricky part is remain in Him. That is a relationship. With that kind of relationship, we will ask for the right stuff. We will be in tune with Him and know what we need to ask for. Our prayers will get answered. I like my prayers to be answered, how about you? Remain in Him. Pastor Bob

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Jesus, the Ultimate Recruiter

Posted on February 4, 2012 by PastorBobLifeGate

In 2002, Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A baseball team was left with a team that was underfunded with its star players sold off. Beane realized that in order to compete with teams like the New York Yankees on his limited budget, he had to think outside the box. He had to recruit players that were cheaper but still filled the need of the team. A movie called “Moneyball” was made about this story. It was an amazing story of what creative thinking can do.

Jesus is the Ultimate Recruiter. In Luke 4:14-28 the story is told of Jesus returning to His home town of Nazareth. His own people rejected Him because Jesus exposed the fallacy in their religion. Jesus is recruiting for his team. He is not taking the most talented or the smartest but people that wants to be on His team. People that want to be part of the team, not stars. People that will do His will not their own. Folks, I hope that you will do an honest evaluation of your religion. In order to be on Jesus’ team, there has to be a relationship, not a religion. Religion makes you feel good but doesn’t solve anything. Living for Jesus not only makes you feel good but gets you to heaven. Do you know that Jesus is Lord of your life? Are you on His team? Become part of His team…the season is almost over. Pastor Bob

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Don’t take any money

Posted on January 13, 2012 by PastorBobLifeGate

Jesus commissioned 72 people to spread the gospel in Luke 10:1. He tells them that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Pray for  workers. But the part of the story I found to be the most interesting is that Jesus told them not to take a purse. Why would He do that? Does that mean God does not want His servants to be prepared? Should we not plan for the future? That is not the message at all. This is the message. When you live for God, when you serve God, the task will always be bigger than you; bigger than your talent, your money, your ability, and your wisdom. You must rely on God. There is no other way.

What does that mean to you today? Regardless of your situation, left God thrust you into the impossible. Let Him guide you into the unbelievable, the undoable, the incredible, so that you know when God does the work, He did, not you. Give Him glory. We are in the last days. Jesus is soon returning and we need to be used up for Jesus’ glory. I pray that you will want to be part of the harvest and a worker in the harvest. See ya. Pastor Bob

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