It's official.  Summer has arrived.  They say the four seasons in Florida are almost summer, summer, not quite summer but still hot, and February.  As a kid growing up in Missouri, summer was the long awaited reward for making it through yet another school year.

One of the greatest days of the year for me as a kid was the first day of summer.  There was nothing like waking up that first glorious morning realizing I had a full three months of nothing but fun and adventure ahead of me.  After a nutritous breakfast of Pop Tarts, Fruit Loops, or some other sugar-packed cereal, I would take off on my bike to meet my friends. You never stayed home in the summer, and you certainly never stayed indoors.  Summer days were spent in the great outdoors.  Living on the edge of town, there were rolling hills to roam and wooded areas to explore. To this day, when I am back in Missouri, I love to walk through the woods.  It brings back a lot of happy memories.

I will never forget the time my friends and I built our own raft from scrap lumber.  We even attempted to bouy it with Folgers coffee cans underneath.  Upon launching our nautical creation in a nearby pond, it promptly sunk. Someone had to go fetch my friend Jerry out of the pond.  Like a good captain, he went down with the raft.

There were many days spent playing the favorite childhood game called pretend.  One day we were detectives trying to solve some neighborhood mystery.  The next day we were frontiersmen taming the great American wilderness. Some days we were soldiers on a dangerous mission.  Other days we were famous athletes playing in the Superbowl or World Series.  Of course, when we got tired of playing pretend we would reenter reality and go jump in the neighborhood swimming pool.

Other memories from those lazy, hazy days of summer include family cook-outs, drive-in movies, homemade ice cream, running barefoot in the grass catching fire flies, a day at the lake, the Good Humor ice cream truck loaded with frozen delights, an evening drive through town with the windows rolled down, and beautiful summer sunsets.  These were long carefree days you wished would never end.  

I am reminded of this verse from the song Toyland sung by Doris Day -

    Childhood's joy land
    Mystic merry toyland
    Once you pass its borders
    You can ne'er return again 

My childhood summer memories are of days far removed.  But the God who was with me then as a young boy, is with me now as a middle-aged man.  While I have changed with the passing of the years, the One I serve remains the same.  He is forever faithful and true.

While memory is a gift from God, so is each new day.  It's summertime again.  Live each and every day of it to the fullest. Live each and every day of it for the Lord.

Pastor Todd Weston  

With the celebration of Father's Day, I am sure many of us have reflected on memories of times spent with our own fathers.  I have many.  

One particular memory was that of a fishing/camping trip I took with my dad when I was about eighteen years old.  The location was Branson, Missouri.  We decided to camp along the banks of Lake Taneycomo.  Why they call Taneycomo a "lake" I will never understand.  It is actually a man-made river formed by the release of cold, deep tailwaters from Table Rock Lake Dam.  As a cold-water "lake," Taneycomo is stocked with trout, which is what my dad and I were after. 

We did a little fishing that evening, then decided to turn in so as to get an early start the next morning.  However, camped that close to the river, we were swarmed by misquitos!  Without a misquito net, sleeping was an impossibility. So we broke camp and moved several hundred yards away from the lake to higher ground.

Awaking the next morning, we emerged from our tent and looked with dismay at the location of our former campsight. It was under water!  Sometime during the night, they had opened the spillway which flooded the area where we would have been sleeping.  It was a sober moment as we realized what could have been.  

Here is a theological question:  Did God send the swarm of misquitos?  I don't know.  But dad and I both knew that God was watching out for us.  Standing there deep in the heart of the Ozark Mountains, looking at the flooded campsight, I thought of the words of the 121st Psalm --

"I will lift up my eyes to the hills--From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord Who made heaven and earth.  He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.  Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.  The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand.  The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.  The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.  The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore."

As believers, we have a heavenly Father who is always watching over us.  His love is everlasting.  His care is constant. So take a few moments right now and thank Him for being the amazing heavenly Father that He is.

Pastor Todd Weston

The story of David and Goliath is undoubtedly one of the best known stories of all time.  Even many non-readers of the Bible are familiar with the story to one degree or another.  But did you know that before the epic battle recorded in 1 Samuel 17, another battle occurred?  It was the battle before the battle.

As the story goes, young David arrived in the camp of the Israeli army with food supplies for his older brothers.  Rather than witnessing an exciting battle, David witnessed a pathetic sight.  He saw the army of Israel inactive, paralyzed in fear because of the threatening taunts of the enemy giant Goliath.  The challenge of hand-to-hand combat had been issued by the Philistine.  But in the camp of the Israeli army there were no takers.  It had all the makings of a suicide mission.

At this point, David began to express interest in the challenge.  He began asking around, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?”  Upon hearing that his kid-brother was making such inquiries, Eliab entered the picture and delivered a verbal sucker-punch.  In 1 Samuel 17:28 Eliab insulted David’s station in life, questioned motives, and attacked his character.  David might have expected such treatment from Goliath.  I doubt he expected it to come from a brother.

It’s fortunate that David didn’t forget about Goliath and use the sling and stone against Eliab.  Though young, David was not weak.  Having already killed a lion and a bear, he was more than able to handle Eliab.  But David would not be distracted by lesser things.  He knew in his heart that the ambush by Eliab was not the real battle.  Displaying wisdom beyond his years, David simply turned away (1 Samuel 17:30).

There will always be Eliab’s out there; bitter souls who question your motives and attack your dreams.  The dreamless will always target the dreamers.  Whether they realize fully what they are doing or not, they attempt to either discourage or distract the faithful from fulfilling their God-given mission.  The “Eliab’s” of life are a dime a dozen.  Giant killers are rare.  

Don’t be surprised when you are faced with a battle before the battle.  Keep your wits about you and your heart right.  Turn away from the faithless, and look to the Faithful One who, for the joy set before Him, endured and won.  

Pastor Todd Weston

I want to repeat a statement I made Sunday morning.  Prayer is the chief occupation of the church.  Four times the Bible refers to God’s house as a house of prayer.  Of course, the Church is given other important ministry functions to fulfill.  But nowhere is the Church called the house of worship, the house of teaching, or the house of counseling.  Those are all essential ministries of the Church.  But the outstanding ministry is that of prayer.

Don’t misunderstand me.  I am not saying that the Church should scrap all other ministries and do nothing but pray 24/7.  I am saying that ministry without prayer is an exercise in futility.  Sure, we can busy ourselves with every ministry under the Sun.  But if we fail to pray, we become like those of whom Paul spoke in 2 Timothy 3:5, “Having a form of godliness but denying its power.”  

I think we would all agree that the world of today is quickly approaching that of Noah’s day, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth” (Genesis 6:5).  We all realize that the spiritual and moral condition of our country is deteriorating rapidly.  If you think a certain politician or political party is going to fix it, you better think again.  Our cities are in trouble.  Families are in trouble.  God-ordained institutions are under unprecedented attack.

And yet in the midst of it all stands the Church of Jesus Christ.  This spiritual bastion is the world’s only hope in the same way Abraham was Lot’s only hope.  Lot had left the godly home of his uncle Abraham and pitched his tent toward Sodom.  Moving to the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot prospered and was assimilated into the pagan society.  And yet Peter tells us that Lot was distressed by the depraved conduct of the wicked.

So great were the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah that God determined to wipe the cities off the face of the earth.  Knowing of the impending judgment, Abraham began to intercede for Lot and his family.  As a result of the fervent prayers of Abraham, God agreed to spare the cities if ten righteous people could be found.  But so great was the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah that not even ten righteous could be found.  God delivered Lot and his family for Abraham’s sake, then rained down fire and brimstone, destroying the cities and all the inhabitants.

If the intercession of one righteous man could have saved those cities, what could the intercessory prayers of many righteous people accomplish?  How might our united prayers impact our country?  How might they change the course of events for the better?  How might they alter policy and legislation?  How might they affect court decisions?  How might prayer impact your own family?  Think about it.  What could happen if the Church took seriously its chief occupation and gave itself to prayer?  What could happen if only we would pray?

The Bible tells us what will happen, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
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It’s time to pray!

Pastor Todd Weston