The View From My Window Pastor's Weekly Blog

Lent is a lot like spring cleaning for the soul. The holidays were great but chances are our flesh grew a bit through them. We ate too much, may have some left over negative feelings toward a few people who didn’t act the way we thought they should have, maybe had a difficult time getting back to our normal routine…

It’s time to ask God to take His scrub brush to our soul once again. Scrub away all the accumulated flesh and allow room for more of the Spirit. One of the best tools for that process is fasting. The very fact that we hate to fast makes it a perfect device for the job. Disappoint your flesh until it finds its delight in the Lord.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

I’m not in this position but I know some people who don’t trust members of their own family. A few can’t trust anyone in their family! That’s very sad. Even if they attend a family event, they have to stay guarded, feeling alone, on edge.

Jesus came to His own and His own did not receive Him (John 1:11). Jesus’ own brothers didn’t support His ministry until after the resurrection. He experienced times when large numbers of His followers left. Others were actively working on plans to kill Him. If not for fellowship with the Father and the Spirit, Jesus’ life would have been a very lonely life to have lived.

May we be able to find our worth, our encouragement, our purpose from the primary source of the members of the Godhead. Earthly friends will come and go, they’ll love you one minute and greatly disappoint you the next. Our God Friend will never leave nor forsake us. What a Friend we have in Jesus!

-Pastor Joel Everhart

Not everyone who says to Jesus, “Lord, Lord, did we not [do all kinds of stuff] in Your Name?” will enter into the Kingdom of God. Perhaps there is no viler a use of Jesus’ name in vain than to use it as if He is your Savior yet never serve Him as your Lord. You worship Him, even do some Kingdom work but pick and choose when to be obedient, which commands you will obey, and just how you will spend your hours and years.

There’s an old saying: “If Jesus isn’t Lord of all, He isn’t Lord at all.” A lot of people followed Jesus for a while when He walked this earth. When things got confusing or difficult, they left. The same has been happening ever since. Most people follow Jesus at their convenience. Some are “fair weather” Christians while others only bother with Him when they’re in real trouble. Where are the people who are willing to live and die for Jesus? What about you?

-Pastor Joel Everhart

When I was a boy, I took swimming lessons at the YMCA. We got to the part where they were going to teach me to jump off the diving board. I got to the end of the board, looked down at the water and said, “No thank you.” I turned and walked off the diving board. Apparently, the life guard teaching the lesson was busy talking to someone and didn’t see me exit stage left. He thought I dived and never came up. He was really quite agitated when I was found to be alive, well and dry. Go figure.

Trials we face are actually private lessons from God. Each is designed to school us in an area where we’re week. Just like that life guard who made me “walk the plank”, God doesn’t take “no” for an answer. He’s going to develop our faith or at least put us through experiences designed to do just that. We might as well learn since we’re going to go through the trial anyway.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

God is ever proving Himself to us. That’s pretty gracious of Him to do. Hasn’t He done enough already? Creation, sunrises, sunsets, storms, births, miracles, provisions…all speak of His power, faithfulness, and love. In today’s text, we see Jesus working on both His disciples and a fickle crowd to call all of them into an ever deepening trust in Him. I know He said He is willing to leave the 99 to search for the lost one but He never stops feeding the 99!

As our faith grows, it’s as if we’ve already secured a great treasure but are invited to add to it daily. What we have learned provides a solid foundation for our soul, what we are learning adds excitement to our journey, and what we have yet to learn gives us joy to know this adventure never ends.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

I have a number of friends who love to work. Some people are motivated by money therefore they’re working a lot of overtime, I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about people who enjoy doing things that make life better for themselves and others. They’re not lazy. They’re motivated. They often do difficult tasks that take a long time to complete not only for the joy of the finished project but also for the joy in the process.

Isn’t life odd? There are people who won’t even take care of themselves, let alone others. Then there are people who make it their goal to take care of everyone and everything. What makes one person so productive and another not? There are likely a million correct answers to that question, each as individual as each individual.

One of the keys to working hard is no doubt enjoying what you’re doing. Jesus enjoyed His ministry. It was hard. He was strongly opposed. There were very few personal perks. Yet, He was driven to seek and save the lost much like a first responder on a search and rescue mission. It’s not about how much they’re getting paid or getting their story to go viral. It’s about finding someone before they suffer another moment of fear, loneliness, pain or want. Finding them fills a place in one’s soul like nothing else. Let Jesus work in you, He loves it.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

Liberty Bunker will be bringing the word for today! I remember being so embarrassed after my first sermon that I was ready to give up on my call. That’s when I felt the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “If you’re not willing to be embarrassed for My sake, you are not worthy of the call.” Thus, I’ve been embarrassing myself ever since. Libby has shared the word with hundreds of kids and in front of a youth group a number of times but this is her first sermon to a group of adults on a Sunday morning. If she looks your way, look encouraging, smile, nod your head, maybe even break out an “amen!” Think about it: you and I will have the privilege of listening to the first of hundreds, perhaps thousands of sermons she will preach in her lifetime. Most of them will be a blur but this first experience will be forever in her memory along with those of us who cheered her on. Get ready to make history!

-Pastor Joel Everhart

I have a number of friends who love to work. Some people are motivated by money therefore they’re working a lot of overtime, I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about people who enjoy doing things that make life better for themselves and others. They’re not lazy. They’re motivated. They often do difficult tasks that take a long time to complete not only for the joy of the finished project but also for the joy in the process.

Isn’t life odd? There are people who won’t even take care of themselves, let alone others. Then there are people who make it their goal to take care of everyone and everything. What makes one person so productive and another not? There are likely a million correct answers to that question, each as individual as each individual.

One of the keys to working hard is no doubt enjoying what you’re doing. Jesus enjoyed His ministry. It was hard. He was strongly opposed. There were very few personal perks. Yet, He was driven to seek and save the lost much like a first responder on a search and rescue mission. It’s not about how much they’re getting paid or getting their story to go viral. It’s about finding someone before they suffer another moment of fear, loneliness, pain or want. Finding them fills a place in one’s soul like nothing else. Let Jesus work in you, He loves it.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

Trying to do what we cannot do only leads to a great deal of frustration, or worse. Jumping off a building trying to fly can be deadly. There are a lot of people who make it sound like we can keep ourselves from ever getting sick or injured, and if we do, we can heal ourselves by following some faith formula. Others have a magic potion that eliminates toxins or releases enzymes or whatever that cures everything from the common cold to cancer.

Many of these people are well meaning; a few want to cash in on you buying their product or advice. Any one of them can make you feel like you aren’t doing enough to help yourself. Not only are you hurting, now you feel guilty.

Today, we meet a man who was doing his best to help his own cause when Jesus happened by and changed everything. “Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.”

-Pastor Joel Everhart