DEACON’S BEACON
AN OCEAN OF INK
The words of the hymn “The Love of God” capture in word pictures the breathtaking magnitude of divine love:
Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.
These marvelous lyrics echo Paul’s response to the love of God. The apostle prayed that believers might “be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge”. (Eph. 3:18-19). In reflecting on these verses about God’s love, some Bible scholars believe ‘width’ refers to its worldwide embrace (John 3:16); ‘length’, its existence through all ages (Eph. 3:21); ‘depth’, its profound wisdom (Rom. 11:33); and ‘height’, its victory over sin opening the way to heaven (Eph. 4:8).
We are admonished to appreciate this amazing love. Yet as we expand our awareness of God’s love, we soon realize that its full measure is beyond our understanding. Even if the ocean were filled with ink, using it to write about the love of God would drain it dry.
To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. - Ephesians 3:19
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Our Daily Bread
Richard Stewart
DEACON’S BEACON
Meditation from the Swimming Pool
It’s summer, one of a teacher’s favorite times of the year. We used to have a swimming pool which I enjoyed quite a bit. You wouldn’t expect to see God’s hand very much in a swimming pool but sometimes you do.
When we first bought our house, it had been empty for awhile and the pool decidedly neglected except by hundreds of frogs. Knowing that we wanted to use the pool, we began to clean it out. The frogs had no idea of the coming catastrophe. We took pool nets and captured as many frogs as we could that had been happily living on the pool cover. We put them in empty five-gallon paint buckets and hauled them to the stream down the next block where we exiled them, hopefully to safe and comfortable homes. Then we took the cover off. A few frogs spilled into the pool, so out came the nets and again we caught as many as we could. These also went into exile down the stream. Finally, only six frogs remained in the pool and it was time to pour in the chemicals which would change the pool from a slimy green habitat to a lovely blue pool. This would also kill the frogs. We were concerned for the frogs and wished that we could change ourselves into frogs for just a few minutes. Then we could hop into the pool, let the frogs know that we did not want to hurt them but that life as they knew it was about to end.
It was at that moment that we realized that was very much what Jesus had done. He had become one of us for a while, coming to live with us to tell us about God’s love for us in words and actions that we would understand. He wanted to let us know how God wished for us to live and give us the opportunity to accept God’s love and grace.
Well, we could not become frogs and we could not forgo the chemicals. So we added the chemicals and stood by with nets. Within a few seconds of adding the chemicals, frogs began floating to the top of the pool. With our nets we caught three and washed them quickly under running water. They survived and joined their friends in the stream. Three other frogs however, kept swimming away from the nets into deeper water until they died. Just as some people choose to reject Jesus, heading deeper and deeper into sin, unwilling to accept the help of a loving Savior.
This event has stayed with me, a reminder of what we needed and what Jesus was willing to do for us. Submitted by Julia Harrod, Deacon
Deacons Beacon
Father’s Day
It has been said that a dad is a fellow who has replaced the money in his wallet with snap shots of his family. No matter where a day takes him or what he does, a dad carries his family in his heart.
My earliest recollection of my father was when we were standing waiting for a bus on a cold wet winter evening. I was about four or five years old and we had been visiting my grandparents. We had no car so we had to rely on public transportation. To keep warm my father opened his coat, stood close to me and closed the coat around me. I felt warm and secure and loved.
Good fathers desire to spend time with their family so they know the family’s needs and can do whatever they possibly can to meet those needs. When they laugh with their children, it makes the times of discipline more meaningful. It has been said that the ratio of compliments to discipline should be ninety to ten. That would mean that for every ten times a father needs to discipline a child, he would need to give the child ninety compliments. What a powerful impact on a child to know that one of a father’s main goals is to see his children doing what is right and praise them for it.
Every father needs to see his son or daughter as someone very special. We need to tell them often that we’re glad God gave them to us. It is our desire to not only have a picture of them in our wallets but to always have them in our hearts in a very special place.
Every day a father’s prayer should be “thank you, Lord for the privilege and joy of being a father.”
Bob Refermat, Deacon Chairman
Deacon’s Beacon
Father’s Day
It has been said that a dad is a fellow who has replaced the money in his wallet with snap shots of his family. No matter where a day takes him or what he does, a dad carries his family in his heart.
My earliest recollection of my father was when we were standing waiting for a bus on a cold wet winter evening. I was about four or five years old and we had been visiting my grandparents. We had no car so we had to rely on public transportation. To keep warm my father opened his coat, stood close to me and closed the coat around me. I felt warm and secure and loved.
Good fathers desire to spend time with their family so they know the family’s needs and can do whatever they possibly can to meet those needs. When they laugh with their children, it makes the times of discipline more meaningful. It has been said that the ratio of compliments to discipline should be ninety to ten. That would mean that for every ten times a father needs to discipline a child, he would need to give the child ninety compliments. What a powerful impact on a child to know that one of a father’s main goals is to see his children doing what is right and praise them for it.
Every father needs to see his son or daughter as someone very special. We need to tell them often that we’re glad God gave them to us. It is our desire to not only have a picture of them in our wallets but to always have them in our hearts in a very special place.
Every day a father’s prayer should be “thank you, Lord for the privilege and joy of being a father.”
Bob Refermat, Deacon Chairman
DEACON’S BEACON
Keeping God First
To know God means to Give Ourselves Daily to Him and ask Him every morning what path would He have us take today. Who should we witness to? What scriptures should we read today? What can we learn about ourselves through other people and situations around us? These are things we can always find out when we Give Ourselves Daily to God. However, how many of us really do that. We are taught and learn that God should always be first in our lives but often let worldly tasks and views disrupt our daily walk.
What can you do when work and family responsibilities seem to swallow every spare moment? God recognizes that we must take care of our children, spouse, and maybe even aging parents as well as earn a living. But He warns that you must put Him first in everything you do.
It was Moses who told the second generation of Israelites, as they were about to cross over the Jordan to claim Canaan as their Promised Land, that they must love the Lord with ALL they had — love God with heart, soul and strength — everything! (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
When Jesus was asked, “Which is the first commandment of all?” He quoted Moses and added another dimension—the “mind” further expanding the totality of our love life towards God and others (Mark 12:30).
How can we interpret these verses for application in our lives as disciples?
To love with our ‘heart’ is to love unconditionally
To love with our ’soul’ is to love passionately
To love with our ‘mind’ is to love willfully
To love with our ’strength’ is to love continually
Loving God is the foundation for all other loves and must precede our love for others. We must love God, understand and receive His love if we are going to be able to love others, including ourselves! When we forget all that God has done for us, when we allow people, experiences, or material things to take His place in our lives,
or when we stop spending time with Him we can get to a place where we are no longer in love with Him. We must keep God first in our lives and he left us specific instructions that if followed will assist us in making God our number one priority.
First, memorize God’s words. Make memorization of Scripture a priority. That way, God’s instructions can always be in your mind, no matter what you a
re doing during the day.
Second, be diligent to tell your children about God’s ways (Deuteronomy 6:7). Make God’s Word a regular topic of conversation at home. That way, God can be at the center of your family life.
Third, keep God’s Word always in front of you—while at work and at home. Part of the Will of God is to study the Bible (2 Tim. 2:15). Many who study the Bible, study for information rather than correction. Disciples of Jesus Christ are admonished not to be foolish, but understand the Will of God (Eph. 5:17). It appears that some who claim to be His disciples today are least informed about this aspect of spiritual and godly living (Col. 1:9).
Fourth, Be around POSITIVE people.
1 Cor. 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits”. Stay away from those people who are trying to act like they are your friends but what they are really doing is bringing you down. They are pulling you in the wrong direction away from God. They can do this by encouraging you to do things that you know deep in your heart are not things that God approves of. That is why it says in this scripture – DO NOT BE DECEIVED.
Most importantly, Always be strong in your faith! Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
If we find ourselves without faith it is because we are not seeking God. To diligently seek God means to pick up the Bible, read it, study it, meditate on it and apply what it says is our lives. Everything we need to please God is found in His Word. If you do these things along with Prayer, your faith will grow and you will put God first in your life.
Submitted by Deacon Archie Parks
Deacons Beacon
DEACONS BEACON
Tax Time
Nobody gets pleasure from paying taxes. We have an old saying to the effect that there are only two certainties in life and they are death and taxes. Try as we may, we can’t avoid paying taxes. April 15 isn’t exactly the happiest day of the year for many Americans. We often lament “It wouldn’t be so bad if the government didn’t waste so much of our hard earned tax money on useless things.”
But there is another way to look at taxes. They are essential if we are to keep our freedom.
Our Armed Forces protect the freedom we love. Taxes are needed if we are to maintain the transportation system on which our whole way of life depends. And the education of our children is made possible by the taxes we pay. Law and order and public health would evaporate. The many things we have come to expect simply have to be paid for with money; they are not free.
There is another costly matter that we share and that is our Salvation. It is often said “Salvation is free.” That may be true for you and me, but it certainly wasn’t true for God it cost Him His Son. And it wasn’t free for Jesus either.
We are saved by God’s Grace. But we must never think that God’s Grace though freely extended is cheap. It was not only costly for God; it has a price for every person who hears Jesus say, “if anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24).
We are forever in debt to God for His Great Love!
Bob Refermat, Deacon Chairman
Deacons Beacon
DEACON BEACON
FEBRUARY 2009
Several years ago, a preacher from out-of-state accepted a call to a church in Houston, Texas. Some weeks after he arrived, he had an occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself: ‘You’d better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it.’ Then he thought, ‘Oh, forget it, it’s only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a ‘gift from God’ and keep quiet.’
When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, ‘Here, you gave me too much change’. The driver, with a smile, replied, ‘Aren’t you the new preacher in town?’ ‘Yes’ he replied. ‘Well, I have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I’ll see you at church on Sunday.’
When the preacher stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and said, ‘Oh God, I almost sold your Son for a quarter.’
Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read. This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as Christians, and will put us to the test! Always be on guard — and remember – You carry the name of Christ on your shoulders when you call yourself ‘Christian.’
• Watch your thoughts; they become words.
• Watch your words; they become actions.
• Watch your actions; they become habits.
• Watch your habits; they become character.
• Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not PROTECT you…
Stay FAITHFUL and Be GRATEFUL!
Dana Stewart
Deacon’s Beacon
DECEMBER DEACON BEACON
“Jesus Birth Prepares Us”
The recent scene of monks fighting at the place where Jesus was buried, The Holy Shrine of the church of The Holy Sepulcher, should reinforce in us what Jesus stood for:
• When Peter retaliated, Jesus said no, put the sword back.
• When James and John wanted lightening to strike the foe: Jesus said no, no vengeance from heaven.
• When the Synagogue assembly filled with fury at His preaching, arose from their seats and escorted Him out of the Sanctuary, to a cliff to throw Him over: Jesus walked away, no recrimination.
• When the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes, the followers of Herod, tried to trick Him, hoping to make Him a fool over His own words: Jesus offered no violence to their person, expect to speak the truth as to who they were.
Jesus was born to give life, life to the fullest. Jesus was born to grant us light, even in our own darkened world.
Jesus was born to heal, to forgive, to encourage us to see a life far beyond, far better than our present.
Jesus was born to prepare us for the day. That day when we are born again, not in a cave or a stable, as He was, but born in a Reign of Light
the world has never seen. For this He died a violent death, so that each of us will learn that hatred and violence destroys the very life He was born to save.
Last month we celebrated the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. He came so that we may be saved. He lived the life that we couldn’t and He died the death we should. Because of this wonderful news Christians get to live lives redeemed by Jesus to reflect His glory to the world.
We pray to our Heavenly Father through the Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to bring peace to the world.
Bob Refermat, Deacon Chairman