'TH... 'TH... THAT'S ALL FOLKS by Ray Eddy

Remember the Porky Pig cartoons? They would always end with Porky stuttering out those words. When he said that, we knew the cartoon was over, there were no more expectations. In a song by Peggy Lee, life seems to end that way, with no more expectations. She sings of all the things she has seen and done and in the end she says, “Is That All There Is?” She goes on to sing that if that’s all there is, in so many words, let’s ‘eat, drink and be merry’.

Many people go to church on a Sunday, and they see three-piece suits, golden crosses; people sing songs, participate in the offering, big choirs, and a message, hopefully about God. They think ‘Is that all there is?’

There is more to life; there is more to church than what happens on a Sunday morning. The ‘more’ to life is conditional to the ‘more’ on Sunday morning. And the ‘more’ on Sunday morning is conditional on our relationship with God. Is your relationship with Him on your terms or is it on His? As Christians, we are in church on Sunday morning because God changed our lives. That change is reflected in our daily living.

He changed our lives because we received Jesus as our Savior. Life takes on new meaning. Church takes on new meaning, because we’re no longer the person we used to be.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold. All things have become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17

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WHO? ME? by Ray Eddy

Moses would not respond to God’s call to serve Him. To get his attention God created a burning bush. Only when Moses saw the burning bush did God get his attention. After reading the account in Genesis about this burning bush, I wrote the following:

SO WHO NEEDS A BURNING BUSH
ONCE I HEARD A MAN SAY I WISH I COULD SEE A BURNING BUSH,
AND LIKE MOSES. BE CALLED TO SOME IMPORTANT TASK.
I WOULD BE QUICK TO RESPOND AND PUT ALL OTHER THINGS BEHIND,
IF ONLY IN HIS PRESENCE I COULD BASK.

I CHOSE HIM LONG AGO TO BE MY SAVIOR AND MY GUIDE,
I’VE GONE TO CHURCH AND MY TITHE I’VE ALWAYS GIVEN,
I’VE SUNG IN THE CHOIR AND BEEN AN USHER.
AND I KNOW MY PLACE IS SECURE IN HEAVEN.

WHAT’S THAT YOU SAY? OF COURSE I’VE LISTENED TO HIS WORD.
AND YES, I’VE HEARD THE PASTOR AND HIS PREACHING,
AND I’VE FELT THE HOLY SPIRIT WIELD HIS SWORD.
MY HEART WAS STIRRED FOR I’VE LOVED THE PASTOR’S TEACHING.
DID I NOT HEAR HIS VOICE, YOU SAY, CALLING ME TO DO HIS WILL?
IT WAS NOT TO ME HE WAS SPEAKING.
AS I RECALL THERE WAS A TIME WHEN I THOUGHT SO, BUT STILL.
IT MUST HAVE BEEN ANOTHER HE WAS SEEKING.

BUT IF HE WANTS TO USE ME, WHAT MORE CAN I SAY,
JUST LET ME SEE THAT BURNING BUSH AND I’LL BE ON MY WAY.

DO YOU NEED A BURNING BUSH?

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LOVE IS OVERRATED! by Ray Eddy

Once a year on Feb. 14, the world is enamored with the idea of love. But the world’s idea of love is overrated. The world only knows three kinds of love. One, ‘I love you for the way you make me feel.’ Two, ‘I love you because I like the way you look.’ Three, ‘I will love you if you act the way I want.’ All of these fall short of the way the Bible defines love. Biblical love is the love God has toward us and the love we are to have toward one another. It is ‘I love you in spite of how you make me feel, or how you look, or what you are able to do for me.’

Biblical love is expressed not in a feeling, but in action. Love is not given because it’s deserved. Love is given even when it’s not deserved. God loves us even though there is every reason for Him not to love us. The Bible tells us that as an act of God’s love He died for us while we were yet sinners. Unarguably, the greatest verse in Gods’ Word is found in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

On this Valentine’s Day may you receive the fullness of God’s love by believing in His Son, Jesus Christ.

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HOW DO YOU LIVE? by Ray Eddy

Some people live in the past. They spend their life either wishing things were the way they used to be or regretting things that happened that haunt them. People who live in the past have no life in the present.

Then there are those people who live only for the future. They either have no satisfaction in the present and hope that tomorrow will bring better times, or they have no peace because they fear the future. Their lives are filled with ‘What Ifs.’

People who live in the present ignoring the past and the future, live as though life is all about them. Their philosophy is ‘Eat, Drink, and be Merry for Tomorrow we die.’ They seek to fill their lives with things that they believe will make them happy. But the more they get, the less fulfilled they feel. So they constantly seek new things and sink deeper in debt.

The way people live reveals their belief about God. Without a belief in God, people are dead in trespasses and sin. They live under the control of the god of this world, the devil. (Ref. Eph. 2)

When we respond to God’s invitation to have relationship with Him through Jesus, His Son, we find our lives are transformed. We are no longer puppets of the devil.

We find that we can live in the present, without dwelling on the past, making preparations for the future.

“FOR TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST” (Phil. 1:21)

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