From the Desk

 

of Pastor Ernie

From the Desk of Pastor Ernie

Quotes

WEEKLY INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHT: November 4

“No doubt the gospel is quite free, as free as the Victoria Cross, which anyone can have who is prepared to face the risks; but it means time, and pains, and concentrating all one’s energies upon a mighty project. You will not stroll into Christlikeness with your hands in your pockets, shoving the door open with a careless shoulder. This is no hobby for one’s leisure moments, taken up at intervals when we have nothing much to do, and put down and forgotten when our life grows full and interesting… It takes all one’s strength, and all one’s heart, and all one’s mind, and all one’s soul, given freely and recklessly and without restraint. This is a business for adventurous spirits; others would shrink out of it. And so Christ had a way of pulling up would-be recruits with sobering and disconcerting questions, of meeting applicants, breathless and panting in their eagerness, by asking them if they really thought they had the grit, the stamina, the gallantry, required. For many, He explained, begin, but quickly become cowed, and slink away, leaving a thing unfinished as a pathetic monument of their own lack of courage and of staying power.”… A. J. Gossip

WEEKLY INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHT: Oct 28

“If God is not, then the existence of all that is beautiful and in any sense good, is but the accidental and ineffective by-product of blindly swirling atoms, or of the equally unpurposeful, though more conceptually complicated, mechanisms of present-day physics. A man may well believe that this dreadful thing is true. But only the fool will say in his heart that he is glad that it is true. For to wish there should be no God is to wish that the things which we love and strive to realize and make permanent, should be only temporary and doomed to frustration and destruction. If life and its fulfillments are good, why should one rejoice at the news that God is dead and that there is nothing in the whole world except our frail and perishable selves that is concerned with anything that matters?” … William Pepperell Montague

WEEKLY INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHT: Oct 14

“It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourselves so, my friends. If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God’s. He begs you to leave the future to Him and mind the present.” … George MacDonald

WEEKLY INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHT: Sept 30

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means–the only complete realist.” … C. S. Lewis

WEEKLY INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHT: Sept 23

“[Matthew] lost a comfortable job, but he found a destiny. He lost a good income, but he found honor. He lost a comfortable security, but he found an adventure of the like of which he had never dreamed. It may be that if we accept the challenge of Christ, we shall find ourselves poorer in material things. It may be that the worldly ambitions will have to go. But beyond doubt we will find a peace and a joy and a thrill in life that we never knew before. In Jesus Christ a man finds a wealth beyond anything that he may have to abandon for the sake of Christ.” … William Barclay

WEEKLY INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHT: Sept 17

“Only the obedient believe. If we are to believe, we must obey a concrete command. Without this preliminary step of obedience, our faith will only be pious humbug, and lead us to the grace which is not costly. Everything depends on the first step. It has a unique quality of its own. The first step of obedience makes Peter leave his nets, and later get out of the ship; it calls upon the young man to leave his riches. Only this new existence, created through obedience, can make faith possible.” .. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“…when a Christian realizes his citizenship is in heaven, he begins acting as a responsible citizen of earth. He invests wisely in relationships because he knows they’re eternal. His conversations, goals and motives become pure and honest because he realizes these will have a bearing on everlasting reward. …He gives generously of time, money, and talent because he’s laying up treasure for eternity. He spreads the good news of Christ because he longs to fill heaven’s ranks with his friends and neighbors. All this serves the pilgrim well not only in heaven, but on earth; for it serves everyone around him.” – Joni Eareckson Tada, in Heaven: Your Real Home,

“Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it,’ while really it is finding its place in him.” – C.S. Lewis

“Almost all of us labour under two very different evils, too much impatience and too much laziness. In our impatience we snatch at the day of Christ as something expected imminently, but in our carelessness we push it far off. Therefore just as the apostle has earlier corrected our reckless ardour, so now he shakes our sleepiness off us, so that we may look expectantly for the coming of Christ at any time.” – John Calvin

“What men call training and preparation, God calls the end. God’s end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now; if we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process – it is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.” – Oswald Chambers My Utmost For His Highest (as shared by Fran Harms)

Sermon Quote: New Heaven, New Earth, New Bodies -July 21

“This sense of being a stranger, which first came to me at the very beginning of life, I have never quite lost, however engulfed I might be in earthly pursuits…. The only ultimate disaster that can befall us, I have come to realize, is to feel ourselves to be at home here on earth. As long as we are aliens, we cannot forget our true homeland.” – Malcolm Muggeridge – “Jesus Rediscovered”

“Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a drain on the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things as they might be. “Good enough” becomes today’s watchword and tomorrow’s standard. Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the new. Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course – downhill. They draw false strength from looking back.” -anonymous

Challenges

“Dirk Willems was a Dutch Anabaptist martyr who escaped from prison, but then turned back to rescue his pursuer, who had fallen through the ice. He was recaptured, as a result, tortured, and killed for his beliefs in May 1569” – (unexplained slide in Sept 29 message)

Homework from Oct 27 Sermon

Psalm 103

-Read this passage every day this week, and think about your perception of God, his character and nature, and how that affects everything else going on in your life

-Find ways to thank God for who he is, and for what he has done for you…

Prayer & Fasting Challenge

Join me, if you are able, as I pray and fast on Mondays. I will be in the sanctuary, or prayer room, between 12 and 1 on Mondays; you are welcome to join me!

Links

Resources

True Riches:What Jesus really said about money and your heart.

God and Money: How we discovered true riches at Harvard business school

“For those of you teaching S.S., leading bible studies, or teaching youth bible studies, this is an excellent resource, or abbreviated presentation, of every book of the bible. I trust that it will be a helpful resource to you! You will find it in the EFC library….

Alcorn, Randy. “Heaven” Carol Stream, Illinois, Tyndale House Publishing, 2004.

Wright, N.T. “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church” Broadway, New York, Harper Collins Publishers, 2008.

Burke, John. “Imagine Heaven: Near Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You” Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Publishing Group, 2015.

Eareckson Tada, Joni. “Heaven: Your Real Home… From a Higher Perspective” Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan, 2018.

Youssef, Michael. “Heaven Awaits: Anticipate Your Future Hope, Your Eternal Home, Your Daily Reality” Carol Stream, Illinois, Tyndale House Publishing, 2024.