A farmer was coming out of the field along the back roads of a remote area.  Just as he pulled out on the road, a city slicker came speeding over the hilltop and hit his rig.  It was a horrendous accident scene.  The farmer lay pinned under the wagon, his dog was sprawled out a few yards away, and his mule was across the road in the ditch.
About that time a car pulled up and the farmer thought to himself, “Thank the Lord!  Someone is going to help me.”  When he saw that it was the sheriff, he was even more relieved.

 The sheriff sized up the situation with a glance.  Seeing the mule in the ditch with a broken leg, he pulled out his revolver and shot the animal to end its suffering.  He then walked across the road and saw the dog lying there in worse shape than the mule.  One shot put the dog out of its misery.  Then the sheriff walked over to the farmer and asked if he was in pain.  Witnessing what had just happened to his mule and dog, the farmer quickly replied, “Never felt better in my life!”

 It’s amazing what a change in perspective can do.  Sometimes we just need to look at life from a different standpoint.  If you have been having a rough day, here is a good word from the Bible that will help adjust your attitude, “This is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

Pastor Todd Weston

Have you ever had a tough lie?  I did last Saturday.  After hitting a very ugly hybrid shot off the fourteenth fairway at Old Corkscrew, my ball actually ended up lodged in the leaves of a Saw Palmetto plant.  Do you know what the chances are of that happening?  I did the math and came out with one in five-hundred-quadrillion!  Needless to say, it was a very tough lie.  I’ll spare you the gory details of what happened on the following shot!

In Psalm 40 David found himself in a tough lie.  My tough lie was a Saw Palmetto plant.  David’s tough like was a pit.  You’ve heard people use the expression, “That’s the pits!”  That is exactly where David was in this 40th Psalm.  It was no ordinary pit.  He called it a horrible pit.  Try as he might, he could not get out.

So what did he do?  He tells us in the first verse, “I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.”  Waiting can be hard.  Waiting patiently can be harder still.  Just remember that waiting time is not wasted time if you do it right.  Waiting on the Lord is time well spent.

 David’s deliverance didn’t come immediately, but it did come!  “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps” (Psalm 40:2).  As a result of his experience, David not only had a new song of praise to sing to the Lord, but a new story to tell to others, “He has put a new song in my mouth – praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the LORD” (Psalm 40:3).




Do you find yourself in a tough lie today?  You can respond by hacking away at it as I did on the golf course, only to make matters worse.  Or you can cry out to the Lord and wait patiently for Him to answer.  The correct course of action is obvious.  And when God answers (and He will) be sure to give Him praise and tell others the story.  




Pastor Todd Weston  

“Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together” (Psalm 34:3).  

Missionary Kurt Holthus referred to this scripture during his message Sunday night and it has been rolling around in my mind ever since.  According to Webster, to magnify means, ”to make greater in size, status, or importance; to enlarge.”  By the way, to read the definition of the word “magnify” from the dictionary I had to put on my reading glasses to enlarge the words.  How ironic is that?!

We are all faced with a choice here.  We can look at life through the lens of faith or the lens of fear.  When we look through the lens of faith, God is magnified.  But when we look through the lens of fear, our problems are magnified.

In 1 Samuel 17, Saul and the army of Israel looked at Goliath through the lens of fear.  As a result, they concluded that the giant was too big to hit.  David, on the other hand, viewed the situation through the lens of faith.  Remember his cry?  “The battle is the LORD’s.”  As a result, he concluded that the giant was too big to miss!

In 2 King 6 the servant of Elisha arose early one morning to find their city surrounded by the Syrian army preparing to attack.  Seeing through the lens of fear, he cried out to Elisha, “Alas, my master!  What shall we do?”  Viewing the situation through the lens of faith, Elisha calmed his servant saying, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  That’s when God opened the eyes of the servant to see the chariots of fire and hosts of heaven surrounding them.

In Psalm 34 David was in trouble (you can read about it in 1 Samuel 21:10-15; 22:1).  And yet, in his trouble David chose to magnify the Lord and look through the lens of faith.  What was the outcome?  David told us in v4, “I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”  

What is your view of God today?  Is He bigger than your problems, or are your problems bigger than your God?  Let’s choose to look at life through the lens of faith.  No matter what your circumstances may be, answer the call of the psalmist.  Magnify the Lord, and He will deliver you from all your fears.




Pastor Todd Weston

The following rhetorical example appears in the book, The Divine Watchmaker, by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman.

“If I told you that this watch on my wrist was designed by a team of engineers, skillfully crafted by a team of highly trained technicians, sent to a jobber, and from there to the store where I purchased it, would you believe me?

Well, let me tell you what really happened.  Millions and millions of years ago there were atoms freely floating through the universe.  Cosmic winds drew them together, clustering them into various materials: silicon, crystals, metals, and other various parts.  Through the random effects of chance – over millions of years, of course – these various elements were thrown together into this interesting device that now adorns my wrist…and it has been keeping pretty good time ever since!”

Any intelligent person would scoff at such a nonsensical scenario.  The very notion that so complex a device as a wristwatch just happened is an insult of any rational mind.  The wristwatch is obviously the result of careful, skillful design.

Isn’t it strange?  We reject the notion that a watch could be the result of cosmic chance, and yet we teach our children that the wrist upon which the watch resides is the result of evolution!  The sheer complexity and magnificence of the human body points to the obvious conclusion of the psalmist, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).  Notice, the writer said “made,” not “evolved.”

The theory of evolution is a myth.  Worse still; it’s a lie.  The truth is clearly stated in the first five words of the Bible, “In the beginning God created…”  We are not the result of some cosmic coincidence.  We are the product of intelligent design.  The Word of God declares that we were created by God and in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).  Now that’s incredible!

Pastor Todd Weston

One of my favorite TV characters is Barney Fife, the comical deputy sheriff from the Andy Griffith Show.  In one particular episode Barney finds an old police file about a nineteen-year-old assault case that was never closed.  The alleged assault was between Floyd the barber and Charles Foley the grocer over the price of a shave and haircut.  The incident was long forgotten until Barney decided to reopen the case.  He decides to reenact the crime, and before long tempers flare and the once sleepy town of Mayberry is in complete uproar.  (The Case of the Punch in the Nose, air date 3/15/65).