firstIMPRESSIONS
from Senior Pastor Timothy Satryan

I have always loved the ocean, and living here in Wilmington allows me the opportunity to just take a quick drive downstate to go to the beach. When I get there, I immediately park, and then walk up to the coast to just watch the waves. I could stand there forever, it seems, and just watch them roll in.

Have you ever thought about the waves? They build up under the surface of the water, becoming larger and larger as the moments tick away. Then they crest, roll over, make a very loud noise, bubble and foam, then finally dissipate. This is the continually repeating pattern of the waves.

Waves at the beach are never ending. One is gone, and the next rolls in, one after another. Some are larger and louder than others, but they keep rolling into shore. I believe life’s problems are like that. They build up, peak, and dissipate. They may be large, small, or in-between, but they keep on coming. They may crash your life with a resounding bang or make a more soft and subtle noise, but they keep on coming. They may deal with emotions, health, finances, family relationships, or a variety of other difficulties one must face in a lifetime, but they keep on coming.

As long as we live in this world, we will face one dilemma after another, be it large or small. The unending load gets heavy after a while, and the waves of life can beat away at a person the same as ocean waves pound at the shoreline.

Jesus has told us to come to Him with our burdens and He will give us rest. He said to cast our cares upon Him, for He cares for us. He said He would send the Holy Spirit to be our comforter and guide; to give us wisdom and the strength to survive the battering waves of life. He promised this in the Bible to all who will reach out to Him and believe in Him.

If the constant waves of life are beating you down, depleting life’s energy out of you, like the grains of sand that are pulled back into the ocean with each wave, call upon Jesus. He will answer the call – you can count on Him!

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 6.06. Live for God, on purpose, knowing He will always be there for you!

As we go through life, every one of us faces a myriad of situations and circumstances, each and every day, which demand our attention. As believers in Jesus Christ, we pray that the Lord will lead us and guide us, and that the choices we make will be choices which please Him.

In the Old Testament book of Haggai, the prophet speaks to God’s people about their lifestyle, and the choices they have made. They had been called by God to rebuild the temple. They saw success, but then became complacent. They experienced opposition, so they became discouraged. They felt incompetent, and grew weary. At each turn, Haggai re-directs them, assuring them that God knows their situation, and that God desires them to move forward toward the completion of their task.

The continual theme of the first three of Haggai’s messages to the people was for them to “consider their ways.” He repeatedly urges them to carefully think about what they were doing – or what they were not doing – and to change their ways. They needed to consider what God has called them to do, and be faithful to do it!

In Haggai’s fourth and final message, the emphasis somewhat shifts. Instead of urging the people to consider their ways, he now directs them to do the most important thing – consider HIS ways!

This was important for the people of Haggai’s day. And, it is equally important for us today! For many Christians today, the starting point of all their thought is their own situation. They look to their circumstances, and then ask what God would have them to do. Haggai’s final message directs the people to first look at God, not their situation!

This Sunday, we will conclude our four-part series on “Consider Your Ways” with a message from Haggai 2:20-23 which we have entitled “Protection and Pledge.” You won’t want to miss this most important message of the entire series!

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by Dick Innes

“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12, NIV).

I once asked a class I was teaching, “What would you say was the Christian’s number one sin?” to which a jokester replied, “Apathy, but who cares?” And as the old saying goes, “Many a true word spoken in jest.”

“In the book The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis, a devil briefs his demon nephew, Wormwood, in a series of letters, on the subtleties and techniques of tempting people. In his writings, the devil says that the objective is not to make people wicked but to make them indifferent. This higher devil cautions Wormwood that he must keep the patient comfortable at all costs. If he should start thinking about anything of importance, encourage him to think about his luncheon plans and not to worry so much because it could cause indigestion. And then the devil gives this instruction to his nephew: ‘I, the devil, will always see to it that there are bad people. Your job, my dear Wormwood, is to provide me with people who do not care.’”

The opposite of love is not hate. Its apathy or indifference... it’s practiced by people who don’t care enough to care. The fact is that people don’t care what we know until they know how much we care.

© Copyright 2006 ACTS International. Visit them online at http://www.actsweb.org

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by Steve Arterburn and Mike Marino

1. God is truly in control.
If God is God, then nothing happens apart from His knowledge and permission. While it is difficult to imagine why God allows some painful things to happen, His character, revealed in the Bible and through the testing of generations, leads us to the conclusion that He is willing and able to sustain you during the worst of times. “We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we learned not to rely on ourselves, but on God who can raise the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:8, 9)

2. There is an eternal life to come.
“Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the Glory He will give us later.” (Romans 8:18) “He will keep you strong right up to the end, and He will keep you free from all blame on the great day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.” (1 Corinthians 1:8)

3. The story isn’t finished yet.
Time after time, the Bible records hopeless situations that ultimately ended in victory. Think of Job’s sickness, Joseph’s betrayal by his brothers, David’s adultery and the many who were healed in mind, body and spirit. “But Joseph told them, ‘don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, to judge and punish you? As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people.’” (Genesis 50:19, 20)

4. God has not given up on you! Don’t give up on him.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

5. There is likely purpose in your pain.
Ask God to reveal His purpose in allowing this difficulty in your life. That’s a legitimate question to ask. Often, the answer comes in the process of dealing with your circumstance. “Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.” (James 1:2-4)

6. You are loved!
Even the most unlovable person in the world is actually loved so much by God, that He let His Son die a terrible death to restore their relationship. God does love you! He sees your pain and weeps with you. “He has sent Me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent Me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, He will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair. For the Lord has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for His own glory.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)

7. Your prayers are heard.
“You parents – if your children ask you for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him?” (Matt. 7:9, 10)

8. You are not facing this alone.
“For God himself has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never forsake you.’ That is why we can say with confidence, ‘the Lord is my helper, so I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5, 6)

9. Others have made it through – you can too.
Try to connect with others who have gone through similar situations. You will find hope, strength and encouragement. “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

10. Reach out to someone else who’s struggling.
Place your focus on someone else and invest your life in him or her. You may discover that your peace of mind is found in being a source of hope for another. “All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” (2 Corinthians 1:3, 4)

Steve Arterburn and Mike Marino, Copyright © 2002 New Life Ministries. New Life Ministries wants to be a source of hope and encouragement for you. If you’d like to know about other resources for finding hope in difficult situations or if you need to speak with someone, call anytime at 1-800-NEW-LIFE.

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The young woman was married and had two beautiful children, but one day as she was standing over the sink, washing dishes, she thought, “There must be more to life than this.” When her husband came home, he found a note she’d written and began to weep. She would call him once every week to check on the children, and he would always tell her of his great love for her and beg her to come home. She would always say no and hang up.

Finally, he hired a private investigator to find her and he went to the apartment where she was staying, nervously holding flowers in his hand as he stood at the door. He had rehearsed over and over what he would say and he finally got up the nerve to knock on the door. She opened the door and he started to speak, but she suddenly began to weep and fell into his arms. Through her tears she said, “Let’s go home.”

Months after, when things were starting to heal, he finally asked her something that had been bothering him: “All those times I talked to you on the phone; I asked you to come back and you refused. Why did you come back now?”

“Before,” she said, “you were just telling me that you loved me. When you came, you showed me.”

The Bible tells us of God’s love, but Jesus came and showed God’s love.

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by David Sanford

If I talk about the hypostatic union of the second person of the Trinitarian Godhead, and can exegetically analyze the word “propitiation” in the original Greek, but fail to ask about your needs and truly help you, I’m simply making a lot of empty religious noise.

If I graduate from a big-name theological seminary summa cum laude and know all the answers to questions you’ll never even think of asking, and if I have all the degrees to prove it... and if I say I believe in God with all my heart, and soul, and strength, and have incredible answers to my prayers to show it, but fail to take the time to find out where you’re at and what makes you laugh and why you cry, I’m a big fat zero.

If I sell an extra car and some of my books to raise money for some poor starving kids somewhere, and if I give my life for God’s service and burn out after pouring everything I have into the work, but do it all without ever once thinking about the people, the real hurting people – the moms and dads and sons and daughters and orphans and widows and the lonely and hurting – if I pour my life into the Kingdom but forget to make it relevant to those here on earth, my energy is wasted, and so is my life.

Here is what love is like...genuine love. God’s kind of love. It’s patient. It can wait. It helps others, even if they never find out who did it. Love doesn’t look for greener pastures or dream of how things could be better if I just got rid of all my current commitments. Love doesn’t boast. It doesn’t try to build itself up to be something it isn’t.

Love doesn’t act in a loose, immoral way. It doesn’t seek to take, but it willingly gives. Love doesn’t lose its cool. It doesn’t turn on and off. Love doesn’t think about how bad the other person is, and certainly doesn’t think of how it could get back at someone. Love is grieved deeply (as God is) over sin, but rejoices over truth. It gets excited when God’s Word is read, and learned, and believed, and lived.

Love comes and sits with you when you’re feeling down, and finds out what is wrong. It truly feels with you and believes in you. Love knows you’ll come through just as God planned, and love sticks right beside you all the way. Love doesn’t give up, or quit, or diminish, or go home. Love keeps on keeping on, even when everything goes wrong and the feelings leave and the other person doesn’t seem as special anymore. Love succeeds 100 percent of the time. That, my friend, is what real love is!

David Sanford serves as president of Sanford Communications, Inc. David and his wife, Renée, are co-authors of the 400 pages of devotional application notes in The Living Faith Bible. Permission granted to forward via e-mail or post online in its entirety (including this notice). All other rights reserved. You can write to the author at drsanford@earthlink.net. Read more at www.growthtrac.com

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These are truisms that only kids can express. A group of professional people posed this question to a group of four to eight-year-olds, “What does love mean”? The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.

• “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.” – Rebecca, age 8

• “When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth.” – Billy, age 4

• “Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.” – Karl, age 5

• “Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.” – Chrissy, age 6

• “Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.” – Terri, age 4

• “Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.” – Danny, age 7

• “Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My mommy and daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss.” – Emily, age 8

• “Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” – Bobby, age 5

• “If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate.” – Nikka, age 6

• “There are two kinds of love. Our love. God’s love. But God makes both kinds of them.” – Jenny, age 4

• “Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.” – Noelle, age 7

• “Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.” – Tommy, age 6

• “During my piano recital, I was on a stage and scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.” – Cindy, age 8

• “My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.” – Clare, age 5

• “Love is when mommy gives daddy the best piece of chicken.” – Elaine, age 5

• “Love is when mommy sees daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.” – Chris, age 8

• “Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.” – Mary Ann, age 4

• “I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.” – Lauren, age 4

• “I let my big sister pick on me because my mom says she only picks on me because she loves me. So I pick on my baby sister because I love her.” – Bethany, age 4

• “When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.” – Karen, age 7

• “Love is when mommy sees daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.” – Mark, age 6

• “You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.” – Jessica, age 8

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by Bob Gass

“You are precious and honoured in my sight... because I love you...” Isaiah 43:4

One of the most beautiful passages in Scripture is found in Isaiah, Chapter 43: “...you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned... For I am the Lord, your God... you are precious and honoured in My sight, and... I love you...” (Isaiah 43:1-4 NIV).

Write down that last phrase on a card and carry it with you: “You are precious and honoured in My sight... I love you.” Wow! You are loved by God. Who else do you need to impress? What other ladder do you need to climb? What are you going to add to your CV that will top that?

Make your life an experiment of living in the love of God. Every morning when you wake up let your first words be “I am loved by God.” And every night when you go to sleep let your last words echo, “I’m loved by God.” Write those words down on a card and carry them with you. When you are tempted to despair because you have blown it, take out the card and look at it. When you are overwhelmed by all you have to do, read it over and over to yourself. Take it out when you’re tempted to sin, to dishonour God, to lash out in anger and hurt someone, or deceive someone, or use someone.

When you are afraid, when you’re anxious, when you’re alone, remember and feast on the words that give life: “I’m loved by God.”

as seen in the February 5, 2006 edition of Bob Gass’ “Word for Today” email devotional. http://www.christianconnect.org.uk

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Jacob, age 85 and Rebecca, age 79 are all excited about their decision to get married. They go for a stroll to discuss the wedding and on the way home they pass a drugstore. Jacob suggests that they go in.

He addresses the man behind the counter, “Are you the owner”?

The pharmacist answers, “Yes.”

Jacob: “Do you sell heart medication”?

Pharmacist: “Of course we do.”

Jacob: “How about medicine for circulation”?

Pharmacist: “All kinds.”

Jacob: “Medicine for rheumatism”?

Pharmacist: “Definitely.”

Jacob: “Medicine for memory”?

Pharmacist: “Yes, a large variety.”

Jacob: “What about vitamins and sleeping pills”?

Pharmacist: “Absolutely.”

Jacob: “What about sugar diabetes? We both got bad cases.”

Pharmacist: “Oh, but of course. You name it, we have the works.”

Jacob: “You have loose bladder and gas pills”?

Pharmacist: “Yes, there are lots of those with plenty of generics.”

Jacob: “Perfect! We’d like to register here for our wedding gifts.”

As I write this week’s issue of firstIMPRESSIONS, people here in the Delaware valley are scurrying about in anticipation of a winter storm, predicting a foot or more of snow on Saturday. Local grocery stores are packed, as Delawareans “do their duty” of buying milk, bread and eggs. I guess that snow storms mean you must eat omelets here in Delaware!

Oh, that we would all prepare as much for eternity as I see people trying to prepare for some snow. I hear the words of our Lord, when in Revelation 3:18 He counsels the people to purchase from HIM gold refined by fire, white clothes, and eye salve so they can see.

Prepare for a snow storm? Sure, that’s fine. But, don’t forget to prepare for eternal life in Jesus Christ!

Yours for HIM,
Timothy Satryan
Senior Pastor
WILMINGTON first assembly of God

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