Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling, and slander, along with every form of malice. – Ephesians 4:31

Two shopkeepers owned stores directly across the street from each other. Each spent his days tracking the others’ business, and gloating triumphantly each time a customer chose his own store. Over time, they became bitter rivals.

One night an angel appeared to one of the shopkeepers and said, “I’ll give you anything you request, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive double. Would you be rich? You can be very rich indeed, but he’ll be twice as wealthy. Do you desire a long and healthy life? Request it, but his life will be longer and healthier. What’s your desire?”

The man thought for a moment, and with a sly grin, stated, “Strike me blind in one eye!”

Bitterness is relentless and dangerous when allowed to take root in our hearts. It destroys decision-making abilities and compromises otherwise focused and productive lives. Its only remedy is forgiveness freely by Jesus Christ. And if you believe the Bible, we are to dispense it generously to others.

Take a step out of bitterness into forgiveness today. Forgive the unforgivable. You can do it!

We forgive to the extent that we love. – La Rochefoucauld

Blessings,

Chaplin Rob

If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, ‘You are my security’, if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained, then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high. – Job 31:24, 25, 28

A rich man prayed, “I’ve worked so hard and I want to take my fortune to heaven.”

“We don’t do that,” God said.

“Please,” he begged, “let me bring it so my children will be spared from an indulgent life.”

“Okay,” God amended “you may bring one suitcase.”

Weeks later, the man found himself at heaven’s gates with a suitcase full of gold bricks.

“A suitcase?” the angel guarding the gates questioned. “You can’t bring anything with you!”

“Oh, I have a special arrangement with God.”

The angel looked into the suitcase and lifted his head, “Lord, I’ve got a man here who says he’s made a special arrangement with you.”

The heavens rumbled, “What sort of arrangement?”

“For some reason he wants to bring in a suitcase full of paving material.”

In God’s economy, your gold will be worth less than the pavement under your feet! But the things often overlooked, children, the poor, our relationships with others, are priceless.

Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile. – Sir Wilfred Grenfell

Blessings,

Chaplin Rob

(Today’s devotional comes directly from Rev. Billy Graham and his website. Over the years I have meditated on these devotionals and with his recent passing I have begun again reading them. I hope this devotional impacts you the way it has impacted me.)

Some people have received Christ but have never reached spiritual maturity. They have been in church all their lives, and yet they have never become mature Christians. They are still considered “spiritual children” and “babes in Christ.” They know little Scripture. They have little desire to pray, and bear few of the marks of a Christian in their daily living. To say, “I will resolve to do better, I will muster all my will power and revise my way of living,” is noble, but futile. A corpse could as well say, “I will-through sheer effort-rise out of this coffin and be a living man again.” You need a power outside yourself. You cannot get over the habits and chains that are binding you. You need outside help. You need Christ.

The Bible tells of a bridge of faith which reaches from the valley of despair to the high hills of glorious hope in Christ. It tells where we are, but beyond that-it tells where we may be in Christ. Now, of course, you will not be completely mature until you are in the presence of Christ, but you should be growing every day as a Christian.

Billy Graham

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. – Hebrews 10:36

Have you ever seen Michelangelo’s David or experienced a live stage performance of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet? These are amazing works of art and literature. They will most certainly be admired through all time.

But what if either of these men had allowed life’s difficulties to get in the way of their passion, their life’s work? We all face difficulties and we all have dreams.

What’s the difference between average men/ women and those who rise to greatness?

Perseverance.

If a project is worth pursuing, it will require initiative, energy, and endurance. One stroke of the hammer didn’t chisel Michelangelo’s David. And Shakespeare didn’t pen Romeo and Juliet over a spot of afternoon tea. Any accomplishment worth attaining requires sustained effort. You must persevere to see your dream through.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. – Thomas Edison

Blessings,

Chaplain Rob

“When you pray and you ask for something, believe that you have received it and you will be given what you asked for” (Mark 11:24 GNT).

Faith is not believing God can do something. Faith is not hoping he will do something. Faith is thanking God in advance.

Jesus said, “When you pray and you ask for something, believe that you have received it and you will be given what you asked for” (Mark 11:24 GNT).

You say, “Wait a minute! I’ve got to thank God in advance before I get it in order to get it?” Yes. If you thank God after you’ve got it, that’s gratitude. When you thank him in advance, that’s called faith.

This illustration really helps explain the idea of thanking God in advance: If someone handed you a check right now for a thousand dollars, would you wait until you cashed it to say “thank you”? No!

You’d thank that person right away. Yet the thousand dollars wouldn’t really be yours until you actually cashed it, because that check is simply a promise. When you are given the check, you can genuinely say thanks, believing that the promise is credible and that the person has enough money in the bank to cover that amount.

Faith is like that. It is thanking God in advance.

What I’m saying is this: If God tells you to go after Moby Dick in a rowboat, take the tartar sauce with you. You’re going to have a fish fry tonight!

Jesus said, “Because of your faith, it will happen” (Matthew 9:29 NLT).

Chaplin Rob

God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time. – Matthew 6:34

The day Martha Stewart went to jail, I mentioned to a group that we should pray for her as she entered her new ‘gated community’, and the group laughed at that. But seriously, jail can indeed be a gift. We prayed for her because good things can happen when people go to jail or hit their proverbial bottom.

In the Bible there’s a story about a man named Joseph who refused to sleep with the queen and was imprisoned for more than 13 years. That was a huge chunk of his life, but it must have been the chunk that prepared him to later be in charge of the entire nation.

Then there was Chuck Colson. While imprisoned for crimes committed during the Watergate scandal he came to trust in God, and when released from prison, Chuck founded what has grown into an international prison ministry that has touched the lives of thousands upon thousands of prisoners.

Your situation might be just as humiliating as Martha Stewart going to jail, but God can redeem it. He makes the best come out of the worst, if you’ll trust Him to do so.

You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what’s that? Come up with a smiling face. It’s nothing against you to fall down flat but to lie there, that’s disgrace. – Edmund Vance Cook

Blessings,

Chaplin Rob

Recently I have been working through a book that I highly recommend to you all. The book is by Rev. James Harish entitled “A Disciples Heart; Growing in Grace and Love”. This morning’s reading offered a story that I wanted to share with you.

The book shares an interesting perspective on Mt Rushmore ( that I didn’t know).

A pastoral colleague, Rev. Magrey Vega recently reflected on the amazing work of Gutzon Borglum’s Mt Rushmore.

After viewing the breathtaking spectacle of Gutzon Borglum’s carving of the four presidents, he stopped by gift shop where he purchased a photograph of the mountain taken in 1902, before the sculptor started his work.

It took Borglum 12 years to carve away the stone in order to reveal all the faces that he alone could see on the mountain.

This could be a metaphor for the way God sees something within each of us that no one else can see.

The new discovery for Magrey was that Borglum allowed an extra 3 inches in each figure’s features to account for the weather , which wears away an inch of granite every one hundred thousand years. This suggests that it will take three hundred thousand years for the carving to actually fulfill the sculptors intention.

Margrey wrote.

I can see that at every turn, God has been at work, chipping away at our hardened hearts and rough edged personalities, teaching us– sometimes painfully– about being utterly dependent on God and clear in our commitment to God’s ways. Just like Borglum’s crew used both explosives and nail files to carve granite our lives are filled with monumental moments, both great and small, that change our lives forever.

As I reflected on this story I realized how true it is to our lives.

As followers of Christ, we are always a work in progress; imperfect disciples on the way to perfection through God’s grace; ordinary men and women who need the continuing work of the Diving Cardiologist to heal our stony hearts, replacing them with hearts that are fully alive and being formed into the likeness of the heart of God.

Often I tell people when they come into my office, That God is not done with them yet. How true this is. Every day if we are open to God’s movement we can witness first hard that God is chipping away our pride, our doubts, and our character defects, allowing the true beauty of who God wants ust to be to shine through.

My prayer for each of you today is that you will take some time to look at the areas of your life that God needs to chip away. Maybe God needs to work on your pride. Maybe God needs to work on your ability to forgive, maybe God simply wants to soften your heart. I don’t know what it is for you, yet I know that God is at work in your life.

Don’t Quit until the Miracle Happens,

Chaplain Rob