Pausing A Moment In September

Can you believe it? Here it is September already!
Where has time gone this summer?
Many different folks I have opportunity to speak with each week have expressed the same sentiment of “rush-ee-by-ness!” That is a word I derived meaning, “Wha’ happent? It was just yesterday a moment ago!” J
Life moves at a very hurried pace. Everything now can be done at the speed of the encroaching future and done yesterday. New developments that come out on the public market are already obsolete even before the public learns how to use them! We are moving at such an accelerated speed of grabbing life before we have even received the next day’s allotment of life, that we are in grave danger of becoming desensitized to the appreciation and joy of this life God has blessed us with.
Life is brief in comparison to eternity.
God’s word verifies that: “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” James 4:14b
The syndrome of “rush-ee-by-ness,” also creates a forgetfulness of appreciating God for who He is: “Be still (cease striving) and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
The antidote for “rush-ee-by-ness,” is in deliberate, “deceleration!”
The maddening pace of accelerated life and its desensitizing effects threatens our regard for one another: personal connections: “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting (encouraging) one another, and so much more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10: 24-25
We need something to help us quiet ourselves down and refresh from slowing down a bit. Time in God’s word each day, meditating or thinking on what you have read, is a positive way to decelerate yourself. Making time and spending that time in God’s house for worship with others is another great way to decelerate yourselves. Taking a moment to pause in September or any other time, and spending that pause with God on a deeper level, is a life-saving action that will preserve your life for all eternity!
Peace and joy in God,
Brother Randy

PAUSING A MOMENT IN AUGUST

I had just come in from a productive afternoon of getting a lot of much needed outside “stuff” around the house done when my wife informed me that she had dug out my dad’s old Bible that he had when I was a child back in Toledo.
I then took it very carefully into my office at home and with great anticipation, excitement, and wonderment, I began to turn the pages.
There was my dad’s handwriting on the family record pages in between the Old and New Testaments; all the family births and deaths, marriages, and descendants. There were various notes he had made when apparently either listening to a Sunday school lesson or a sermon. There were some pictures he had kept between the pages of God’s well-worn and used word.
It was a moment that I was transported back into the yesterdays of my life growing up with dad. My dad came to Jesus late in life after he and my mom were married. He was immersed into Jesus in September of 1955, while I was immersed into Jesus, also in September of 1969. I never realized that these months of “second births” were the same unto I wrote this article.
I write this not just for sentimental purposes, but just to share with any and all who care to reflect on the interesting parallels that we may find in our lives.
One of my parallels was to discover that I was immersed into Jesus the same month as my dad.
I was also amazed to discover that one of my dad’s favorite passages of scripture is also one of mine. I will copy it out of his Bible:
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
To my dad, he was always amazed that God could love him and want to save him inspite of all his corrupt and sinful years in the back hills of Kentucky.
It was good for me to be transported back to a time of recognition of one of my dad’s favorite passages. Because to him, to be recognized by God, loved by God, forgiven by God, and changed through Jesus Christ, was something very special! So special, that he allowed God to change his heart and life so much so that dad willingly served his Savior faithfully in the church until his death.
When dad died, I remembered John Hasty, who had known my dad for many years, and was officiating at my dad’s funeral and graveside, say something that I have never forgotten. He said, regarding my dad,
“Richard Piatt may not have been a perfect man, but he was a faithful man unto his family and unto his God!”
God has used my dad’s Bible to remind me of the priceless value of realizing that I am recognized by God, loved by God, forgiven by God, and am continuing to be changed by Jesus Christ, His Son!
I know that I am not perfect…boy, do I know that! But may I ever strive to be found “faithful” always unto God and His Son’s body, the church!
Why not take a moment in August to pause on your lives, reflect, and realize God’s great and awesome love for you??! Why take a moment to pause and thank God for His mighty love and ask His help that we all might be found faithful unto Him!
Thank you for letting me share this with you!
                                                                                 In God’s love, peace, and hope, Brother Randy