Dear family of our Lord Jesus Christ,
PRAISE GOD we are here today to serve our LORD!
I want to express our sympathy to the John Galle Sr. family in Windom, Minnesota, my hometown. John has passed onto heaven. I had many talks with John Galle in Windom, Minnesota growing up. He was the owner of the Ben Franklin store. He served on the Fire Dept. with my Dad. My Dad, Wally Moede, John Galle and John Paulson were an awesome team of leaders on the Windom Fire Force! Paulson was Chief, Galle Assistant Chief and Dad 2nd Assistant and Sec. of the Dept. The Windom newspaper did an article on the three of them when they retired with over 100 years of service between them. I firmly believe that those three brought the Windom Fire Department to a new level during their time of service. All three are now with the Lord. Their legacy continues as the Windom Fire Dept. is one of the best volunteer forces in the United States. This is an all-American story, as all three served their community in many ways….Paulson as the local State Farm agent, Galle as owner of the Ben Franklin and later as Mayor, My Dad as Transportation Director for the School and head usher at the American Lutheran Church. This picture is of the historic Cottonwood County Courthouse, on the Town square in Windom, Minnesota, the County seat. Paulson, Galle and my Dad stood for what it means to serve and not to be served. Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Just one more note on this, I am able to stay in touch with the Galle family through Facebook, as my classmate of 1974, Jeff Galle, son of John Sr., is still my friend. I praise God for this thing called Facebook, as it has put me back in touch with so many friends from years ago! But, I also pray that people behave them selves on Facebook and not embarrass God.
God Bless the memory of John Galle Sr.
I love getting my newspaper, the Baptist New Mexican….I love the jokes in it! LOL! like this one…..
The Pastor shocked his congregation by announcing that he was resigning from the church and moving to a new state. After the service a very distraught lady came to the Pastor with tears in her eyes, “Oh, Pastor, we are going to miss you so much. We don’t want you to leave!” The kind-hearted Pastor patted her hand and said, “Now, now, Dear, don’t carry on. The Pastor who takes my place might be even better than me.” “Yeah.” she said, “That’s what they said the LAST time too!!!!”
This quote by my hero D.L. Moody fired up my engines!!!!!
“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I ought to do. What I ought to do, by the grace of God, I will do.”—D. L. Moody
Amen to that!
But let’s be careful. We must not measure the perfection of God’s provision by some standard below His calling. He does not call us to live in palaces, but to take up our crosses and love people no matter the cost. And when we are finished carrying our crosses—on torn shoulders, If God wills—-there will be kingly robes for us all. The promise to meet all our needs does not mean He will make us rich. It does not even mean he will keep us alive (‘some of you they will put to death,” Luke 21:16). It means He will give us all that we need to do the will of God. John Piper in his book, “What Jesus Demands from the World”
So much anxiety…..so much anxiousness….so much worry in this world we live in………..last night I saw on Facebook a man making a plea for a JOB, any job…….so sad, you can feel and see his pain for his family..UI am trying to help families and individuals right now who are out of work, marriage problems, cancer, emotional hurt….We must minister to the hurt! …Hurt is growing in this dying world….The World is in WW III and does not know it, the World has come apart at the seams, but too many go their merry way, but yet they have their head in the sand. I am reading and studying over a book given to me by Pastor Leonard Navarre, I encourage you to read it. IT REALLY PREACHES THE TRUTH OF JESUS! “What Jesus Demands from the World” It is excellent! Here is my reading from today…….
“Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day” Matt. 6:34.I am sure you have read that hundreds and hundreds of times. God has appointed to each day its portion of pleasure and pain, as the old Swedish hymn says, especially the last two lines of this verse:
Day by day, and with each passing moment,
Strength I find, to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He Whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what He deems best—-
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.
Karolina Wilhelmina Sandell-Berg, Day by day
So don’t misappropriate God’s allotted troubles for tomorrow. I have been and am guilty of this!
That is, don’t bring them forward into today in the form of anxiety. believe that God will be God tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be grace for tomorrow’s troubles. That grace is not given today.
The main point of all this is clear and unmistakable: Jesus does not want His followers to be anxious. he does not secure His kingdom by keeping His subjects in a state of worry. On the contrary, according to Matthew 6:33, the more primary and central thing His kingdom becomes in our lives, the less anxiety we will have.
The message I am attempting to bring forth this morning is capped off my my Sister Shari Johnson……….
My heart was overflowing this morning. I’ve spent two days in a prayer conference listening to great men of God expound the truth of the glorious gospel. They stirred my soul…convicted me of my mediocre living for Christ and then encouraged me to do more. I followed that with Wednesday night service at my own church; where, going in half prepared because of my week of traveling, God still came down and met with that group of teens. A packed house in our little class room, knee to knee they sat, some listening… some not. That’s okay, I don’t always listen either.
I’m straying away from the “But Now” series for today; kind of a station break of sorts to encourage you with the message that God gave me quickly today. It was the verse of the day on Biblegateway.com and it bated me in, hooked me and then reeled me into the rest of the chapter like an eager fish.
Psalm 33
Three ways to encourage God to encourage you!
PRAISE HIM AND BE HAPPY!
Praising God makes you pretty! Who knew? Well God for one, and I guess the writer of the Psalm had figured it out.
Vs. 1~ Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.
There’s something about a person who’s in the process of praise. I’m not sure I’d call it a Shechinah glory, but the presence of God is obvious, it’s beautiful and they’re happy. Even if they’re in the throes of the worst battle of their life, if they begin to praise God He brings an unexplainable joy to their soul.
Tell somebody how good God is, and watch your heart get happy.
PRAISE HIM WITH BLUEGRASS (and don’t be a slacker)!!!
Okay that’s not in there, but it’s close:
2 Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. 3 Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
See… I’m not lying. Those were the tools of bluegrass in the formative years. God said to play a new song and do it well. This is my take on that… When you sing before the congregation of the Lord, or before the kitchen table as I have this evening, sing like it’s the first time you’ve stood before Him and give Him your best. I cannot tell you the times I have been ill prepared and well prepared to sing, and Heaven came down, and times that I’ve sang and Heaven didn’t even open a window. It’s a matter of the heart. But God loves a good bluegrass song! And other genres too, that just happens to be my fav. Sing a song to the Lord and He’ll encourage you.
PRAISE HIM JUST BECAUSE
4 For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth. 5 He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
God is good all the time.
A few days ago when ISIS was at it again, I awoke in the middle of the night and began praying for that family. My heart was broken. I didn’t have to know them, I just knew if it was someone I loved I would have wanted someone to pray for me. I didn’t know how to pray. I wanted to pray… God send a bomb down on top of those people and let it not kill them right away. I was that angry. And then I thought, “No, God died for them too, I have to forgive them.” But how? How is it humanly possible to forgive someone that heinous? It’s not. But with God, all things are possible. And God is good. I just have to go on that and praise Him in the good times and bad and let Him have His day of judgment on them. Praise Him for He is worthy, and if ISIS stops our praise, they’ve won another battle.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg of blessings in Psalm 33. I encourage you to read the rest yourself.
On a personal note, if I encourage you… please pray for this ministry, God’s will and share the messages so that I might encourage others. I can’t do it without ya. And it sure wouldn’t be as much fun.
Thank you Sister Shari! We love you so!
God Bless you and yours forever and ever! Dewey, Sharon, Family and FGGAM Team
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