The Pastor's Pocket

The story of Job is familiar to most who have read the Bible.  Job suffered more losses than a lot of us will experience in a lifetime.  He lost his livelihood, his children, his health, his possessions, his house, and his friends turned against him. There came a point when there was no one left on which he could lean on.   It’s interesting to note that it was after Job had been abandoned by his friends, that the realization of his Redeemer’s faithfulness fell upon his desolate soul.  In Job 19:25, Job said, “For I know that my Redeemer liveth,”. He appreciated his relationship with God more, now that all his other relationships had let him down.   If you live a dedicated, godly life, you’re going to be deserted by someone sooner or later. But God will never desert you. “For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5b.   When God is all you have, you will discover He is all you need to press on.   Who is it in your life that has let you down or disappointed

  “Fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;” Romans 12:11b   Most pastors I talk to share with me the same struggle. That is, how to keep their people motivated. How to help them maintain a fervency in serving in their various ministries. I certainly don’t have the answer, as I struggle with the same thing. I know we are still suffering from the aftermath of the Covid pandemic. However, I witnessed this lack of fervency even before Covid.   Perhaps it is partly a fulfillment of Paul’s prophecy in 2 Timothy 3 where he said that God’s people would be “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;” We seem to have no problem being fervent about a ball game, a race, or a theme park, but we struggle to be fervent in our service for the Lord. What can change that? Revival. Only when we are truly revived in our hearts and rearrange our priorities will we ever change. Our fervency will be restored when we understand what a privilege it is to serve the King of Kings.   I have said this for ma

2 Corinthians 2:11 says, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” Satan’s devices, his tricks, schemes and methods are many.    Anyone who has ever gone fishing knows that you use any kind of bait that will work to catch fish.   I enjoy fishing for bass.   I have all kinds of bait (lures) in my little tackle box.   If one lure is not successful in helping me catch a fish, I will try another. Satan is somewhat of a fisherman.   He has many ways in which to snare unsuspecting people.   We must be aware of his lures.   The devil is a deceiver, and his plan is to destroy our God-given purpose and to distract us from the will of God.   Here are some of the lures Satan has used successfully to ruin the testimony of many: The appeal of the world (II Timothy 4:10). Things, material possessions (Luke 12:15, Mark 10:21). Money, the hunger for wealth (I Timothy 6:7,10). Sexual temptation, seduction (Judges 16:4). Disappointments, bitterness (Hebrews 12:1

Psalm 50:14-15, “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”   Notice the three key words here: offer, pay, call.  “Offer unto God thanksgiving.”  Many times, we rush right into the throne room of God with our requests and fail to pause and praise Him and thank Him for His goodness, His faithfulness, His provision, and His kindness towards us.  We have so much to be thankful for and a lot to praise Him for every day.   We are to “ pay thy vows unto the most High:” The idea is to keep our promises.   To follow through with what we’ve promised to do.   Have we paid our tithes? Have we done what we said we would do in our relationships with others?   Then God says, “call upon me in the day of trouble:” Troubles, trials, and problems, are all a part of life.  No one is exempt from them, not even believers. But when they come, we are to cry out to God in faith and He says He will d

It all comes down to the individual.  If we want a better country, better churches, and better homes, then each of us, must take personal responsibility for the condition of our own heart before God.   When you study Psalm 51, you see the conversation of a man who is focused on the issues relating to one man – himself. David is coming clean before God.  He is dealing with his own stuff.  He is not blaming his family, his friends, or his environment.  He is just putting the sin, his own sin, out on the table, and claiming the cleansing and forgiveness that God Almighty freely offers to anyone who will be honest and humble with Him. Hosea 10:12 issues an urgent call and a promise, “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you.” God will heal.  God will forgive. God will restore and revive.  It’s up to us to do our part.   We all know the need for a massive, soul-shaking reviva

Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”   Learning to wait on God to move or to answer our prayers requires absolute trust.  When we get ahead of God, we rob Him of an opportunity to prove His power and wisdom in our situations.  We must be patient and endure seasons of waiting at times.  Remember Hannah?  She so desperately wanted a child and pray she did, but God granted her desire in His own time.   Our flesh hates waiting, so we must crucify the flesh, trust God, and allow Him to move on His timetable, not ours. Waiting on God is not wasted time.  James 1:4 says, “Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”  Waiting allows for our faith to grow, and as we develop in character and integrity, we will be ready to accept God’s will, whatever that may be. Waiting allows us to gather information to assess our options and to see things more clearly. If we are patie

We’ve never really given a problem over to God until we completely trust Him with the outcome. So much of our faith in prayer is tied to getting God to do what we think is best. We rejoice as long as God does what we ask or as long as God responds as we think He should.  But 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 He determines best.  That’s never easy, but it’s a place we must come to in our understanding of God.   The story is told in Daniel chapter 3 of the three Hebrew young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. A decree went out from the Babylonian king that everyone in the province was to bow down to the golden statue (an idol), and if anyone refused, they would be thrown into a fiery furnace.  I love the bold faith of these three men in verse 17 when they said that God is able to deliver them from the fiery furnace and deliver them from