'SEIZE THE DAY'

Rev. Juliet Schimpf By Rev. Juliet Schimpf    Rev. Juliet Schimpf  is the Minister of  First Baptist  Church in Perth, Ontario: http://www.perthareachurches.ca/baptist_perth_A.htm

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LINK to CFRA broadcast of Sunday, July 7^th, 2013)

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/14601/good_news_060_july07.mp3

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Broadcast Notes:

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'Seize the Day'

SEIZE THE DAY!

Psalm 39 4 "Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.

5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you.  Each man's life is but a breath.  Selah 6 Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:  He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.

BIG GOD +

SMALL ME =

PLANNING WITH HUMILITY

SELF-SUFFICIENCY=========èGOD-DEPENDENCY

1. PLANNING THE WRONG WAY
2. GOD HAS THE FINAL SAY
3. SEIZE THE DAY!

1. PLANNING THE WRONG WAY

Verse 13:  “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.’”

• three kinds of merchants at the time of James: 
• (1)  the old Hellenistic mariners who never left the sea and shipped  and sold cargo from one port to the next;
• (2)  the caravan traders who used camels, wagons, horses and mules to bring and sell goods from one city to the next;
• (3) local shop-keepers who traveled abroad to find goods and merchandise for their stores and businesses
• choose their own time, location, operation—NO MENTION OF GOD…THEY HAVE MADE THEMSELVES INTO GOD
• these traders pick the exact day of their departure:  “today or tomorrow”
• they pick the city they will visit:  “this or that city”—one can imagine them pointing the town out to one another on the map
• they determine the length of their stay:  “a year”
• they state what they will be engaged in:  “carry on business”
• and they even state that they will make money

2X PROBLEMS

A.WE ARE FINITE

Verse 14A:  “Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring.” 

• We tend to forget that we are mere human beings who are finite.  We do not know what tomorrow will bring.  Only God has that ability; only He is infinite and all-knowing.
• Solomon warned:  Proverbs 27:1  Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
• TITANIC When the New York office of the White Star Line was informed that Titanic was in trouble, White Star Line Vice President P.A.S. Franklin announced " We place absolute confidence in the Titanic. We believe the boat is unsinkable." By the time Franklin spoke those words Titanic was at the bottom of the ocean.”
• Charles Spurgeon:  “It is a great folly to build hopes on that which may never come.  It is unwise to count your chickens before they are hatched.” 

Verse 16:  “As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”

• 1 Corinthians 1:26  “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord”

• Galatians 6:14  “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which  the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

B. WE ARE FLEETING

VERSE 14B:  “What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

NASB:  “You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

MESSAGE:  “a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing”

• Life is like mist or fog:  uncertain, transient, and temporary.
• Isaiah 40:7-8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them.  Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."

• Hosea 13:3  “Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.”

2. GOD HAS THE FINAL SAY

• Verse 15:  “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.’”
• message:  Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”

FALSE MEANING OF VERSE 15

“Lord willing and the creek don’t rise”—means “barring catastrophe”

TRUE MEANING OF VERSE 15:  GOD IS SOVEREIGN; GOD IS KING

Isaiah 46:9-10 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

 

Lamentations 3:37 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Who has spoken and it came to pass, UNLESS the Lord has commanded it?

My Days Are Numbered

All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
(Psalm 139:16)

JOB 12:10  New International Version (©2011) In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR OUR PLANS

• Proverbs 16:1  “To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue.”
• Proverbs 16:9  “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”
• Proverbs 19:21  “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
• Proverbs 20:24  “A man’s steps are directed by the Lord.  How then can anyone understand his own way?”

• THOMAS A KEMPIS:  “MAN PROPOSES BUT GOD DISPOSES.”

3. SEIZE THE DAY!

• Should we even plan?
• Winston Churchill:  “It is better to have an ambitious plan than none at all.”
• It is not wrong to plan
• Apostle Paul:  1 Corinthians 4:19  “I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills.”
• Apostle Paul:  1 Corinthians 16:7  “I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits”

PROPER PLANNING IS DONE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD

• give God our future; it is His to do with as He pleases
• FIRM CENTRE; SOFT EDGES--ALLOW ROOM FOR GOD TO CHANGE YOUR PLANS
• ALLOW TIME FOR GOD TO BREATHE INTO YOUR PLANS
• HOLD ONTO YOUR PLANS LOOSELY
• PLAN WITH GOD’S PRIORITIES AND GOALS IN MIND
• “Pray as if everything depended upon God; work as if everything depended upon you.”

PLAN FOR TOMORROW BUT SEIZE TODAY

• ¹⁷ Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

JONATHAN EDWARDS—AGE 21

• • Resolution #5: “Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.”
• • Resolution #6: “Resolved, to live with all my might, while

I do live.”

• • Resolution #17: “Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.”

Friends, that is planning God’s way, and that is seizing the day.

So today we learned by looking at James 4, don’t plan the wrong way. God always has the final say, and make sure you seize the day.

Will you join me in our closing prayer?

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word which reminds us that you are God and we are not; that you are big and we are small; that you are infinite while we are finite; that you are perfect while we are imperfect; that you are eternal whereas we are temporary.

We thank you for that reminder because, well frankly, Lord, it’s good for us to be reminded, and it can allow us to sigh a sigh of relief that not everything depends on us: that you’re in control; that you are sovereign, and in your perfect timing you will work out all things for good for those who love you.

(I) pray for each listener today that they will not pray the wrong way, but instead they will remember that you have the final say, so that they will seize each day and remember, always, to say, “...if the Lord wills it.”

We thank you, God, for each day, for each breath, and each heart beat. May we use them for your glory! Amen.

Rev. Juliet Schimpf

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/14601/good_news_060_july07.mp3

'WONDER WOMAN'

Rev. Juliet Schimpf By Rev. Juliet Schimpf    Rev. Juliet Schimpf  is the Minister of  First Baptist  Church in Perth, Ontario: http://www.perthareachurches.ca/baptist_perth_A.htm

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LINK to CFRA broadcast of Sunday, June 30^th, 2013)

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/14374/good_news_059_june30.mp3

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Broadcast Notes:

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'Wonder Woman'

Ref: PROVERBS 31

SECRET WEAPONS:

1.   HER WORSHIP

2.   HER WISDOM

3.   HER WINSOME NATURE

1.    WORSHIP

WONDER WOMAN:

STANDING----------àKNEELING

·        VERSE 30:  “A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

·        JAMES 4:10  “humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

·        THE JOY OF THE LORD BECOMES HER STRENGTH

·        HER PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IS AN EXTENSION OF HER PRIVATE OBEDIENCE

ACTING-------------àWAITING

·        her strength isn’t her own; it comes from God

·        ISAIAH 40:31  “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

·        Psalms 27:14 - Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

·        Psalms 37:7-9 - Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.   (Read More...)

PERFECT-------------àIMPERFECT

·        In a way, this describes “Wonder Woman”, but we must remember that we have a “Wonder-Working God”.

·        “8  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9  As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever."” (2Co 9:8-9 NivUS)

·        THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN OR THE NOBLE WOMAN; NOT THE PERFECT WOMAN

·        NAOMI WAS A WIDOW

·        Rahab was a former prostitute who recognized Israel’s God was the only God and risked her life to hide the two Jewish spies. She knew Israel would wipe out Jerichobecause of what their God had done in Egypt. She acted in faith to allow the spies safe return back to Joshua.

·        Ruth was an unlikely candidate for a godly woman because she was a Moabite. Yet she refused to abandon her mother-in-law Naomi, even after her own husband died. She placed her faith in Naomi’s God – the God of Israel – and God rewarded both of them through Boaz who would marry Ruth and become the great-grandfather of David.

·        Bathsheba had an affair with David who had her husband Uriah murdered. God struck down the child they had from their adulterous affair, yet when David married her God graciously gave them Solomon. Later on when David’s Abijah tried to proclaim himself as king without David’s permission, Bathsheba risked her life to confront David the aging king and remind him of his promise to Solomon and God’s covenant promises. David established Solomon as king.

·        MARY MAGDALENE HAD 7 DEMONS CAST OUT OF HER—SHE WENT ON TO SHARE THE RESURRECTION

2.   BECAUSE SHE WORSHIPS….

SHE IS WISE

CHAPTER 31 FUSES LADY WISDOM WITH THE ORDINARY WOMAN:

·         Within the world of Proverbs, the capable wife looks quite a bit like Woman Wisdom. She, too, is strong (compare 8:14 with 31:17, 25) and opens her mouth with wisdom (1:20-21, 24; cf. 31:26). She, too, "laughs at the time to come" (31:25; cf. 1:26). Indeed, the opening nine chapters of Proverbs present the student of wisdom as a son, listening to the instructions of his father (1:8; 2:1; etc.). Peppered throughout are speeches by Woman Wisdom (e.g., 1:20-33) who is to be desired rather than the temptations presented by the Strange Woman/Dame Folly (see 2:16-19; 7:10-20; 9:13-18).

Feminists have a field day with this proverb.

But this is no wilting violet!

This is not an enslaved woman; she is an empowered woman;

She is not to be pitied; she is to be admired:

·        she has servants to manage (15c);

·        money to invest (16);

·        as her husband’s trusted partner (11) she has sole responsibility in her domain, which extends beyond the house to the management of her lands (16) and to dealings in the market, where she is as shrewd a seller (11, 18, 24) as a buyer (13, 14).

WHY IS SHE WISE?

Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the

knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

EVIDENCE OF HER WISDOM?

1.   VERSE 26 “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue” (31:26)

2.   VERSE 18  “her trading is profitable”

3.   Verse 14  She is like the merchants‘ ships - 
She acts like merchants. If she buy any thing for her household, she sells sufficient of her own manufactures to pay for it; if she imports, she exports: and she sends articles of her own manufacturing or produce to distant countries; she traffics with the neighboring tribes.

4.   VERSE 25   “she can laugh at the days to come”

·        She is keenly aware that God is Sovereign; not her.

·        She knows that God is in control; not her.

·        She knows that whatever the future may bring has first crossed the desk of the Creator of the Universe.

·        *  NRSV PSALM 27:  ¹ “The Lord is my light and my salvation;
     whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold^* [NASB “DEFENSE”] of my life]  of whom shall I be afraid?”

3.   SHE IS WINSOME

BEAUTY IS NOT THE END-GOAL

PROVERBS 11:²²   Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout  is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.

PROVERBS 31:30  "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain [fleeting], but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." 

HOW MUCH WE OBSESS ABOUT APPEARANCE!

National Post Staff  December 18, 2010 – 10:00 am

a.   174, in millions of dollars, value of cosmetics and fragrances purchased at major retailers in December 2008

b.   89, in millions of dollars, average monthly sales of cosmetics and fragrances purchased at major retailers in 2008

c.   123, in millions of dollars, value of jewellery and watches purchased at major retailers in December 2008

GWYNETH PALTROW:  WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN

LOUD--------------àQUIET

·        1 Peter 3:3-4 New International Version (NIV) ³ Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. ⁴ Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

PROVERBS 31:  "¹⁷ She girds herself with strength, and makes her arms strong. ²⁵ Strength and dignity are her clothing"

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

SELF-PROMOTING--------àSELF-EMPTYING

VERSE 20  “She opens her arms to the poor
    and extends her hands to the needy.”

WINSOME IN THE SIGHT OF HER HUSBAND:

·        VERSE 11:  ¹¹ Her husband can trust her,
    and she will greatly enrich his life.
¹² She brings him good, not harm,
    all the days of her life.

WINSOME IN THE SIGHT OF HER CHILDREN:

VERSE 28  “Her children arise and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her”

 ·    Dr.G. Campbell Morgan had four sons. They all became ministers. At a family reunion, a friend asked one of the sons, “Which is the greatest preacher?” While the son looked at the father, he replied, “Mother!”

 

WINSOME TO THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE:

VERSE 20 "She opens her arms to the poor and extends the hands to the needy."

 

Closed with a prayer.

 

Rev. Juliet Schimpf

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

 http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/14374/good_news_059_june30.mp3

 

'IMAGINE: JESUS, BUDDHA AND MUHAMMAD GO FOR A WALK'

Rev. Canon George Sinclair

by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           
 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

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(Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, June 23rd, 2013)

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/14228/good_news_058_june23.mp3

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Broadcast Notes:

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(Abridged notes covering discussion on Luke 9: 51 - 56 )

‘Imagine: Jesus, Buddha And Muhammad 

Go For A Walk’ 

Notes not yet available... Please enjoy the audio (link above), and check back soon.

'MISTAKING DEMONS, IDOLS AND JESUS'

Rev. Canon George Sinclair

by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           
 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

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(Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, June 16th , 2013)

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/14058/good_news_057_june16.mp3

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Broadcast Notes:

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(Abridged notes covering discussion on Luke 9: 37 - 56 )

‘Mistaking Demons, Idols and Jesus’ 

Notes not yet available... Please enjoy the audio (link above), and check back soon.