The Pastor's Pocket

“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;” Ephesians 5:20.   “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” I Thessalonians 5:18.   Give thanks always? For all things? Really? Yes.   The Bible teaches us to give thanks, to praise the Lord, to be grateful – always. This sounds impossible, but it isn’t. God never requires something of us that is impossible to do. Giving thanks always, requires trusting God, knowing that God is sovereign. He is always in control, and He never makes mistakes. He either causes all things in our lives or He allows them. We can be thankful for each event in our lives, knowing that God is in the middle of it.   Everyone can give thanks after a blessing comes their way. That’s not hard, and it doesn’t require much faith. Have you learned to thank God before a blessing comes? That is evidence you are trusting God and by faith, you are beli...

Our daughter was shopping at a wholesale store recently and sent my wife this text, “Insane how packed it is on Wednesday afternoon!” My wife’s reply to her was, “Tis the season”. The busy shopping season has begun. It’s a great time of the year for retailers.  During this season as Christians, we mustn’t venture out without asking the Holy Spirit to fill us with patience and give us the strength to maintain a Christ-like spirit.   This is a shopping season when many people are searching for, hoping for, something that will satisfy a craving, fulfill a longing, or give them a thrill. For some it will be a party, alcohol, a new car, new clothes, a new boyfriend/girlfriend perhaps. For some, their happiness comes from a sale at the mall, and their many purchases. It’s a season when many are looking for a “high” which turns out to be only temporary.   Friend, there is a “high” you cannot buy. It’s righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). It’s not some...

When I think of a military veteran, the word “service” comes to mind.  Those in the military serve their country to keep us safe.  We all owe a great debt of gratitude to military veterans who loved their country enough to fight for it, and even to die for it.   Despite the way military personnel are portrayed in the liberal media, those who serve and have served are among our nation’s finest.   Several years ago, Tom Brokaw wrote a book titled, “The Greatest Generation”, in which he sought to provide evidence that it was the World War II generation of men and women who sacrificed all for America’s Freedoms. Those who made it back home, went to work, married, and had families. They went on with their lives without complaining. They understood and believed the concept of sacrifice. Whether you agree with Brokaw’s assessment, you must admit that service and sacrifice go hand in hand.     May we all salute our veterans. Thank them for their service. That’s the...

In Major League Baseball, each team has a Bat Boy. They are most often young kids who retrieve bats after a player has hit the ball and taken it to the dugout.  They also retrieve other items, shin guards, elbow pads, etc. These young boys have no name on their jersey and the cameras almost never show them while they work during the game. They go unnoticed, but their tasks are important. They are there to serve the players.   This past summer as I was watching a game and as I really took notice of what the Bat Boy does, some scriptures came to mind. Romans 12:10b, “in honour preferring one another;” Philippians 2:3b says, “in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” Other scriptures I encourage you to read: I Peter 5:5 and Proverbs 3:34.   Someday in heaven I think we will meet a lot of Christian people who, in a sense, were “Bat Boys” for Jesus. They served others. We never knew their names. They were never in the limelight. People who were the un...

It’s that time of the year when the animals are getting ready for winter. They make sure their nesting place is ready for hibernation. They are gathering food or eating a lot of food now to sustain them during the winter months.   In the mornings when we wake up, we get ready for the day. When we are expecting visitors, we get ready for their arrival. The airline industry works hard to make sure their planes are ready to fly. Athletes warm up to get ready for competition.   Jesus tells us to get ready because He is coming.  Are you ready for His return? We must be prepared, for one day the Lord will surely come. How can you be sure you are ready for that moment? (1) Make sure you are saved, born again. (2) Be serving Christ in some capacity. (3) Make sure you are doing the will of God. (4) Be a worshipper. Practice now praising the Lord because that is what you will do in heaven (Revelation 4-5).   Are you prepared for an encounter with the Lord today? Have you posit...

Some of life’s greatest disappointments stem from someone we know and trust leaving a wound in our soul.  All of us, at some time or another, have been seriously disappointed in other people by their behavior, their attitude, their words, or they responded to us in a way that we felt was inappropriate.   Knowing ahead of time that offences will come is a hard lesson, but it must be learned.   Someone said, “the best of men is a man at best”.   We must accept the reality that every person is a human being, subject to multiple failures and mistakes in their relationship with others.   If we are prepared for disappointment, it will lessen the level of pain we feel, or at least lessen the frustration and help us heal and overcome our attitude toward them.   Here are some things to consider: (1) Your immediate family is a “classroom”. They are often the last to understand what you’re all about. Don’t be surprised if they misinterpret your passion for God. (2) Di...

We learn two ways, by mentors or mistakes.  Think about that.  We can be instructed, coached, motivated, helped, or guided by someone with more wisdom, more knowledge, more skill, more talent or more strength than we have ourselves. Or we can do things our own way, in our own limited understanding, with our own limited skills or resources.  When we allow ourselves to be mentored, we can avoid many mistakes.   Over many years of pastoring, I’ve watched people make a lot of mistakes in their marriage, parenting, finances, and their health. They made poor decisions because they refused to learn from someone who could help them.  Did they learn from their mistakes? Probably so, but those are hard lessons that led to a lot of frustration and heartache.   I have preached a lot of sermons through the years that would have helped some people with problems they are facing, but they never attended church to hear those sermons.  I’m amazed at people who say they ...

Have you ever been to the ocean and taken the time to watch the waves crashing in on the shoreline? They just keep coming wave after wave. The process never ceases. That to me is a picture of God’s grace. His undeserved favor poured out upon our lives. Wave after wave, day by day, minute by minute.   In 2 Corinthians 12:9, God spoke to the Apostle Paul with these words, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Sufficient means, always enough. Just like the waves of the ocean, God’s grace keeps coming. It never runs out. It never ceases to flow into our lives, in our crisis moments, and the dark seasons of our lives.   Thank God for the waves of His sufficient grace in your life.   The Pastor’s Pocket Pastor Bruce Freeman  

You’ve never really given a problem over to God until you completely trust Him with the outcome. Too much of our faith in prayer is tied to getting God to do what we think is best. We rejoice if God does what we ask or if He responds as we think He should. What if God has other plans? Is He any less faithful?   The truth is, God sometimes does have plans that differ from our own agenda.   As we pray, we must be willing to accept whatever God determines best.   That’s never easy, but it’s a place we must come to in our understanding of the Holy One.   We all know the story of the three Hebrew young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and the fiery furnace.   The story is found in Daniel chapter 3.   An order had gone out from the Babylonian king that everyone in the province was to bow down to the golden idol, and anyone who refused would be thrown into a fiery furnace. I love the approach of these three men in Daniel 3:17, “If it be so, our God whom we...