The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.19

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Blessings to you, loved ones.  My prayer for you this week is that you have an awareness of God’s presence and his care for you.  I hope to share with you soon what I think He said to me this morning, but this Sunday we have set aside to celebrate our wonderful mothers, so if He is willing I will deliver a message in keeping with the occasion.

Proverbs 31 is probably one of the better known passages of scripture for it’s glowing description of the “excellent wife.”  I’ve heard women speak of this passage with dread as a standard they could never meet.  The whole of the scripture sets a standard we can never meet.  That’s why Jesus had to come.

There’s more here than a depiction of “God’s Wonder Woman.”  The book of Proverbs often personifies wisdom in feminine form.  Here at the end of the book, it goes a step further and depicts a life governed by this wisdom, specifically the life of a wise woman.  It’s actually pretty radical, especially for its time.  This woman is Trustworthy, industrious, strong, kind, confident, and optimistic.  She does the families business, takes care of their needs, dresses them like royalty, and gives to the poor besides.  Little is said of her husband, except that he is a leader in the community, apparently by way of his wife’s reputation.  We’re told that she should be given her due.  (Proverbs 31:28-31)

We probably don’t know anyone who checks all the boxes, but I’ll bet most of us can find our moms’ qualities in this list.  Don’t wait for Mother’s Day.  Let your mom know how much you appreciate her at every opportunity.  It’ll do you both good.

Last Sunday was pretty sparsely attended, but we were all glad to be together.  Cathy says that Ruth is doing better and she sounds good when we talk to her, so we can hope to see them back next week.  Edith was out with back pain and we surely miss her when she is gone.  I know Priscilla will be back as soon as she is able.  Keep each other in prayer and stay connected.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.18

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Good day, friends.  It is a good day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it!  It looks like rain, but we need the rain.

This week I ran across another one of those verses that always stands out to me because of it’s implication.  Luke 12:25-26 reads, “which of you by worrying can add a day to his life’s span? Therefore if you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about the other things?” (NASB)  We may make choices that give us a greater chance of living longer, but God is the only one who knows the number of our days, (Psalm 139;16)  Certainly we can’t change that by worrying about it.

The part that always catches my notice is “a very little thing.”  Here Jesus speaks from the perspective of the creator of the universe.  To him it is a very little thing indeed!  This is the God we serve.  We can trust that He knows our needs better than we do.

There is plenty of instruction in the Bible about living our lives in a responsible way by  working and planning to meet our own needs and those of our families, but as children of God we are not to be consumed by these things.  Our primary purpose is to please Him.  Everything we are and everything we have belongs to Him.  This is not reason for fear, but rather for peace and joy!  He loves us, and what He has in store for us far surpasses anything we have here.  He says a few verses later that we are to store up our treasure in Heaven rather than here on Earth.

We can become so consumed with anxiety about things that are happening or that might happen in the future.  Worry can affect our health.  Some of us have been overwhelmed by fear of the covid-19 virus.  In theory, because prolonged stress can affect your immune system, you might actually get the virus from worrying about getting it.

It’s good to do what we can to avoid dangers we can reasonably expect or predict.  It’s not good to let those worries consume our lives.  We should never lose sight of the reality that our Heavenly Father, who cares for all of His creation, values us most highly.  What could we possibly have to fear?  Prepare wisely, but do not worry.  God knows what you need, and He has chosen to give you the kingdom.  We’ll spend eternity learning what that really means.

We’ll focus on Luke 12:25-32, but for the whole message with its context read Luke 25:13-34 at least.  I’ll see you Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.17

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Hello friends.  My prayer for you this week is that you are walking with your Heavenly Father, secure in the knowledge that He will never let go of your hand.

It was good to see a few more people last Sunday.  Keep Priscilla in prayer as she works to recover from the knee replacement.  We surely miss her presence among us along with Kimi.

I was reading in the psalms earlier this week when a phrase got my attention.  It’s from Psalm 37, which we studied late last year, but further down.  In the New American Standard Bible, it reads this way.

The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way.  When he falls, he will not be hurled down, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand. (Psalm 37:23-24)

I read this version all the time, so I must have seen that before, but I didn’t remember it that way.  I remember the old chorus taken from the King James, which reads, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.”

The NASB made it more personal.  The picture I have in my mind is of a small child being held by the hand, walking next to his father.  I discovered that there are as many variations on these verses as there are translations, but they all stay true to the key concepts that are being communicated.  Walk with God.  Delight in Him and He will delight in you.  You may trip and fall, but He will not let you hit the ground.  He has hold of your hand.

There seems to be a theme in the things that God is saying to our church these past two weeks.  We will find our peace as we walk beside Him.  His desire is for a loving, fruitful relationship.  Believe Him.  Trust Him.  Walk with Him. Work with Him.  If we try it on our own, we will fall.

See you Sunday.

Love to you all.

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.16

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Blessings to you, loved ones.  I’m excited about what God is about to do in our church.  I don’t know what it looks like yet, but I believe good things are coming.  My life is certainly changing.  The message I had in mind for this week has become something other than what I thought it would be.  God spoke to me this week through His word, and I trust that what he revealed will bless you as well.

If I had to answer in a word how I have felt the last few years, it might be “tired.”  I don’t think I’m alone.  We all have demands made on us.  We have responsibilities, families to care for, work to do, commitments to keep, and circumstances in our lives that just sap our energy, both physically and emotionally.  We don’t get enough rest.  I don’t just mean we don’t get adequate sleep, though that is often the case.  I’m not referring to periods of relaxation, though that too is important.  What we need is rest for our souls.

We can actually be very busy and still have rest.  The key is in our relationship with Jesus.  When we are working together with Him, He tells us, “My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”  Most of us could fill a book with the things we’ve been told we should be doing.  Many of them are good things, but we can get so weighed down by the impossibility of doing it all that we become discouraged.  We imagine that it all depends on us, so we strive to make it happen.  If asked, we’ll say all the right things, but our lives send a different message.

Jesus still calls to us today, “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Are we listening, or are we still off trying to keep our own set of laws and that under our own power.  It’ll never work, and we weren’t meant to function that way.  We’ll become tired, warn out, and wounded.  Let us instead learn to walk  with Him, and then we will find the rest we so desperately need.  Our text is Matthew 11:25-30.

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.  Priscilla is moving around some now, but I don’t know if we will see her or not.  Keep her in prayer as she recovers from the knee surgery.  Remember Edith and her family.  Let’s keep on encouraging each other throughout the week.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.15

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Blessings to you, precious people.  I sure enjoyed our time together last Sunday.  Some of us were away with family, but we also saw a couple of folks that haven’t been able to come for a while.  Thanks once again to everyone who pitched in to make it a success.

I am enjoying the luxury of time to think and prepare.  I’m thankful for the opportunity to serve you more fully.  This week I have been thinking about the troubles facing our nation.  Much of the turmoil we have faced seems rooted in racial conflict.  I think much of that has been inflamed by people with agendas for which racial tension serves as a means to an end.  We would heal much faster without the forces of darkness tearing at the wounds.

What is the response of the Christian?  Should we in our pursuit of justice embrace worldly ideologies that have been coated with a thin veneer of scripture? I think those who choose that route will have to answer for it.  We are all equally valued by our creator.  We can marvel at the variety of His creation, but we should celebrate that which binds us together as one.  We can celebrate that which is uniquely wonderful in each of us, while glorifying the God who loves all of us.

Our scripture focus will be Galatians 3:28.  Here, Paul goes through some of the class and race divisions of his day and sets them all aside.  We are all one in Christ.  I usually do not like to focus on one verse to the exclusion of its context.  I will cover the context briefly, but in light of the current circumstance I think it will be helpful to examine this verse in detail.

I consider it part of my duty to help apply Biblical truth to the world around us today, so we will examine at a high level some of the relevant issues and see what God’s word has to say about them.

Keep on praying for each other and building each other up.  Remember especially Priscilla as she goes in for knee surgery tomorrow.  There’s still time for a miracle.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.14 HE IS RISEN!

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He is risen indeed!  Blessings to you, family and friends.  This Sunday we will celebrate Resurrection day together and I hope you can join us.  Some of us may feel like we’ve had our own kind of resurrection after the corona virus sweep.  I know we’re all thankful to be restored and able to celebrate together.  We’ll be sharing a meal after the service.  Bring a side if you can, but bring yourself for sure.

Do you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead?  It is a rather difficult thing to believe.  It’s not really surprising that some people require more convincing than others.  I was taught about it all my life, but I still had to come to a place of believing it for myself.  It’s an essential part of our faith.  Paul explains that without it our faith has no meaning.

Even some of his disciples who were with Him, hearing everything He taught and seeing everything He did, required some convincing.  One never really believed, and at least one had to see it first.  Actually, the scripture seems to indicate that most of them had to see it first, though John singles out Thomas in order to teach us something.

Thomas wasn’t with the rest of the disciples when Jesus first appeared to them.  When they told him they had seen the Lord, he famously responded, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25)  And so throughout history he has acquired the undeserved appellation, “Doubting Thomas.”

I think the point of John’s account here is not to single out Thomas, but rather to communicate Jesus’ words in their context.  “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” (John 20:29)  That’s all of us, if we do in truth believe.  Our text will be in John 20:24-29.  Let’s look a little closer at Thomas and what was going on here.  I think you’ll be encouraged.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.13

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Blessings to you, loved ones.  It’s a beautiful spring day.  A mockingbird has been singing off and on most of the day in our back yard.  I am often in wonder at the beauty and complexity of God’s creation.  It is a gift from our loving Father.

As I contemplate God’s love, I am reminded of something that Jesus said, recorded in John 13:34.  “”A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”  This verse, along with 35, has been one of my favorites for most of my life, but it was only a few years ago that I really noticed the first part.

Jesus called it a new commandment.  What was new about it?  The Mosaic law said that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, and that had been around for thousands of years.  Jesus even said that it summed up everything else that the law and the prophets had to say.  But do you see the difference?  The law said that we should love others as we love ourselves, but Jesus said that we are to love each other as He loved us!  Jesus has just raised the bar.  How did He love?  He loved with His life!  In verse 35, he says that this kind of love identifies us to the world as His disciples.

What does this mean for us?  How should it affect the way we treat each other?  What sacrifices might it require of us?  What would you do for your own family?  WE are all in His family.  I feel the responsibility of that, but I also feel the joy.  As part of the body of Christ, you and I are surrounded by love.  Receive it, and give it away.  The more you give, the more you have!

I hope you will be able to join us.  April 4 will be Resurrection Sunday.  We will share a meal after the service.  A sign-up sheet for side dishes will be available this Sunday.  I’m delighted that the church wanted to do this.

We were missing a few last week.  Cindy was suffering side-effects from the vaccine, Edith was not well, and Kimi had fallen and hurt her leg.  Cathy asked that we pray for Carlton, Ruth’s nephew in Louisiana. Quoting in part, “He had back surgery on March 15 and he is still in the hospital. He can’t get out of bed at all. His mind has literally slipped away & he doesn’t know his children. The children think he has given up. Please pray for God’s hands to touch him & let him know he isn’t done with him yet.”  Keep encouraging each other and praying for each other.

See you Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.12

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Hey y’all!  🙂  Every week I open with one a few tired greetings so I thought I’d get your attention.  But I still love you.

It was good to have just about everyone back again last Sunday.  Now it’s time to bring in more!  I’ve heard noises about nursing home restrictions easing up, so I hope we’ll soon be able to bring Kelvin back.

This week I was praying, writing in my journal, looking for inspiration for the next message.  I was thinking about the future.  I was thanking the Lord for my job even as I complained about it.  I started thinking about what I would do if things changed in the future.  What if I don’t have that job?  I say I’m thankful for it, yet the idea of losing it doesn’t exactly fill me with dread.

I sat there for a minute, then the story of Martha and Mary from Luke 10:38-42 came into my head.  I started to write down my thanks for the idea for a message, but that it didn’t have much to do with what I was just praying about.  Then it hit me.  It has everything to do with it.  The circumstances are different, but the message is the same.  In that moment He might have said to me, “Larry, Larry, ‘you are worried and distracted by many things; but only one thing is necessary.”

Our lives are full of distractions.  It’s not that they aren’t important.  Jesus didn’t say that what Martha was doing didn’t need doing, though I wonder if she felt that way at the moment.  The truth is, we wouldn’t function very well without the Marthas among us making sure everything gets done and practical needs are met.  Martha was a faithful servant, and Jesus loved her as much as He did her sister Mary and brother Lazarus, whom he would later raise from the dead.

The question that came into my mind as i read this story was, “why did Luke, lead by the Holy Spirit, feel it important that we read about this incident.  We have so little recorded of what Jesus said and did. Every detail has been given to us for at least one reason.  I think there are several here, but to put it in a few words, it might be that we know more about who Jesus is and know that there is no better think than to be His disciple.  Only one thing is necessary.  Let us choose the good part.  Come join us!

Love you all,

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.11

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Hello friends.  It sure was good to see you last Sunday.  I’m so glad we decided to come back together.  As we continue to heal as individuals, I look forward to seeing how God brings new life into our corporate body.  He has preserved us this far.  He is not finished with us yet.

As most of you will know, we had a scare with Ruth this week.  She was taking to the hospital with bleeding and kept overnight for observation.  The good news is they got the bleeding stopped and she is now back at home.  I’ll let Cathy share any further details as she sees fit during praise and prayer tomorrow.  Continue to pray for her and also for Cathy.

Tomorrow we have the joy of being together again, and I hope you’ll be with us.  I will confess that with the extra time I have had to spend at work the last few weeks, I have been prayerfully pulling from old notes for material to share with you.  God wouldn’t let me get away with that this week, so I know this message is meant for at least one person, identity unknown to me, who will hear it.

“What goes around comes around.” “He had it coming.” “They deserved it.”  We hear things like that all the time.  We have a sense of justice, and generally expect that eventually one’s actions will catch up to them.  We’re quick to judge the actions of others, but not so quick to judge our own.  We expect others to consider our motivations, but tend not to extend the same grace to them.  We are all in need of mercy.

We know and teach that God grants that mercy.  Does that mean we’re free to do as we please?  We all know better, but we don’t always act like it.  We say things like, “You can’t judge me.”, or a church favorite, “you’re being legalistic.”  Sometimes we are legalistic.  Sometimes we are too quick to judge.  Sometimes that judgment serves as a cover for our own weaknesses.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he writes primarily to confront the assault upon the good news of grace by those from the Jewish tradition who were attempting to add the necessity of keeping the Jewish law to the message of salvation.  The Galatians were being swayed by their arguments.  He explains the purpose of the law, declares the sufficiency of faith in Christ, and concludes with instruction of discernment and holy living.  Keeping the law cannot bring salvation.  Freedom from law does not give license for sin.  Paul makes this plain as he begins to wrap up his letter.  We’ll read from Galatians 6:1-10.

Love y’all!

Larry

The Bartimaeus Blog 2021.10

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I’m so excited!  We’re coming back!  It has been two months since we met in person.  Going virtual was the right thing to do, but it will be good to worship together again.

The state-wide mask mandate has been lifted, but it won’t be official until Wednesday.  Even then, all that means is that we are free to choose without government coercion what measures we feel are necessary to protect ourselves and others.  I’m asking that everyone continue to wear masks and observe social distancing as a courtesy to those who may not be comfortable dropping their guard just yet.  The virus is still with us and still a danger.

This is just one situation where we need to make good choices, and that is what i want to talk about on Sunday.  We like choices, and we’ve never had more of them.  We vehemently defend our right to choose, even if the choices we want to make are bad ones.  It is actually very important that we have that ability.  God built it into us so that we could choose Him.

So how do we make good decisions?  God’s word has some wisdom for us on that subject.  Let’s find it!  We’ll start with Proverbs 16:1-3.

Keep on praying for each other and encouraging each other.  Cathy reports that Ruth’s cancer is only within the breasts and they hope to be able to remove it all with surgery.  We learned that Kay is in hospital apparently due to a problem with her heart.  I talked to Shelly and she says they are doing well.  Everyone I connected with sounded ready to be together again.

I look forward to seeing you all on Sunday.

Love y’all!

Larry