Greetings to you all

Tonight’s (November 4, 2023) gratitude meal @ 5:00 PM is a time together that we highly value – a taste of Thanksgiving a couple of weeks early and a connection point for celebrating the many ways God’s love and grace empowers service in this church body.

Here we are on this last day of Daylight Savings Time.

I guess that means we all get one extra hour around midnight tonight….or is it 2:00 AM tomorrow?

Well, whenever the digital clocks synchronize this annual time-change, it’s a tiny, quick reminder of the value of each hour of our lives. Two words often used in the Bible to describe the brevity of life are “vapor” and “breath“. For example, in Psalm 39:11, the entire life span of a human being, in comparison to eternity, is called “a vapor“.

Over 250 years later, the prophet Isaiah pinpointed the necessity for all human beings to humble themselves before Almighty God, when he cautioned all listeners against trusting in man “who has but a breath in his nostrils.”

That’s a vivid way of saying that our entire existence on this planet is dependent on our being able to breathe!

And the oxygen we need must be inhaled one breath at a time. Although the supply of oxygen is infinite, our profound need for oxygen requires us to take it in tiny regular doses.

Though it sounds mundane because we depend on breathing continuously, the fact is that God’s design for our lives is truly awesome in what it teaches us about Him.

Put simply, those words “breath” and “vapor” illustrate our need to draw daily from the rich resources of God’s Word, a keen awareness that each hour of our life is loaded with potential. . The paintbrush of the psalmist portrays all aspects of human life as a wonderful gift of God, to be enjoyed and celebrated. But the very thing we love should never become more important to us than God. Life swiftly zips by and carries us along on the current of the decisions and choices we have made.

It’s the reason for the urgency in the letters of the Apostle Paul as he spoke of “redeeming the time because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:16). To those Christians who faced hostility or persecution, the urgency is obvious. But those who are living on “easy street” need an awakening jolt of truth, to realize our next breath isn’t guaranteed.

We might think of “redeeming the time…” as a yellow flashing light at a dangerous intersection. It reminds us that there are consequences for every attitude, word and action in our lives.

And that “caution light” also contains great news! It tells us that God places enormous potential for blessing, energy and joy in the brief bursts of time that are part of even the busiest of our days.

A pioneering missionary named C.T. Studd, wrote in the 1890’s “Only one life, ’twill soon be past ~ only what’s done for Christ will last.'” He not only sensed the urgency of maximizing each day’s opportunities. His memorable words inspired tens of thousands of servants of Christ whose zeal for the glory of God spurred them into missions. His instinctive sense of maximizing life’s best opportunities is the reason behind the common phrase “Carpe Diem” or “seize the day”.

Like a psalmist inscribing timeless poetry on a sheepskin notepad, we can serve the Lord and glorify the Lord whether we’re in easy surroundings or hostile terrain. For we find in Christ the greatest motivation of all to “seize the day”.

A quick reminder: On each 1st Sunday of the month, we invite everyone to wear the name-tags available on a table in the Cafe Liberty welcome space.

We love also welcoming those who can be with us in live-stream for 10:15 AM service and for each of you who use this email to click in to watch at a later time. We so appreciate you all!

Here are those links to the live-stream and podcast options:

View the service live online

• Directly from our Live page
• Facebook Live: https://tinyurl.com/355fdkmm

“The Lord is my strength and my song.

My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped.

Therefore my heart greatly rejoices and with my song will I praise Him.”

(Psalm 28:7)