Sunday, May 24, 2015

PROTECTING GODLY PRINCIPLES

Dear friends,
          Good oratory is hard to find these days, but one president was probably the best, Pres. Ronald Reagan. A trained speaker, Reagan became a wordsmith of phrases. This speech was given on Memorial Day, 1982, at Arlington National Cemetery. Regardless of your political affiliation, I am sure you will find his thoughts appropriate for this day.

        “Once each May, amid the quiet hills and rolling lanes and breeze-brushed trees of Arlington National Cemetery, far above the majestic Potomac and the monuments and memorials of our Nation’s Capital just beyond, the graves of America's military dead are decorated with the beautiful flag that in life these brave souls followed and loved. This scene is repeated across our land and around the world, wherever our defenders rest. Let us hold it our sacred duty and our inestimable privilege on this day to decorate these graves ourselves -- with a fervent prayer and a pledge of true allegiance to the cause of liberty, peace, and country for which America’s own have ever served and sacrificed.
        “Our pledge and our prayer this day are those of free men and free women who know that all we hold dear must constantly be built up, fostered, revered and guarded vigilantly from those in every age who seek its destruction. We know, as have our Nation’s defenders down through the years, that there can never be peace without its essential elements of liberty, justice and independence. Those true and only building blocks of peace were the lone and lasting cause and hope and prayer that lighted the way of those whom we honor and remember this Memorial Day. To keep faith with our hallowed dead, let us be sure, and very sure, today and every day of our lives, that we keep their cause, their hope, their prayer, forever our country’s own.”  

        America was founded 239 years ago on Christian principles of law and justice. All who seek to change this fact are denying the basis for the gifts God has given us in this nation and are imperiling the freedoms so long fought for. May we always be led by those who would never deny the God of the Holy Bible.

May we ever be vigilant to protect those Godly principles,

Rev. Bob Tasler
www.bobtasler.com

Monday, May 18, 2015

SIX BIG LESSONS


SIX TINY STORIES WITH SIX BIG LESSONS

1) Once upon a time, all the villagers decided to pray for rain, and on the day of prayer all the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella. That’s FAITH.
2) When you throw a baby in the air, she laughs because she knows you will catch her. That’s TRUST.
3) Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive the next morning, but still we set our alarms  to wake up. That’s HOPE.
4) We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future. That’s CONFIDENCE.
5) We see the world suffering evil, but still we get married. That’s LOVE.                                      
6) An old man’s shirt read, “I am not seventy years old. I am twenty with fifty years’ experience.” That’s ATTITUDE.

Those are six very good lessons to learn. Sadly, so much of our life is spent wondering six (or more) other things:
1) Will I succeed? 2) Will I be loved? 3) Will evil prevail? 4) Will I have enough? 5) Will people ever learn? 6) Does God really exist and love me?
God helps us understand by the little lessons we learn in life. True, the big occasions will teach us some things, but the small ones shape our learning, reason and faith as we meet them each and let the good lessons seep into our soul.
We humans will always see life as a series of small daily acts, but God sees the Big Picture. He knows where we are headed and how we will get there.
He gives us FAITH to see each day as a gift and helps us TRUST that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He gives us HOPE that we may not despair and CONFIDENCE to face each day without fear. He shows us His LOVE in Jesus Christ on the cross and gives us the ATTITUDE of joy in knowing what faith in Christ will bring us.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)

Sunday, May 10, 2015

A MOTHER'S REQUEST

Mother's Day, 2015

Dear Child,
        Mother’s Day is coming up, and I thought I should tell you what I want. This way there’s no guilty panic or last minute purchasing of flowers at the closest gas station. So this is what I want, this year and every year after.
        I want you to be a decent human being. I want you to be who you are, but don’t be an idiot. I want you to work hard at everything you do, because life is too short not to give it everything you’ve got. I want you to know that you can choose the right thing when the devil offers you his cookies.
 
       I want you to ask for help when you need it. I want you to help others when they need it. I want you to learn how to cook, do your own laundry, pay your bills and know how to clean a bathroom. When you mess up, and you will more than once, I want you to own it and do your best to fix it. It’s the mess-ups that make the victories sweeter. 
       I want you to travel, because the world is huge and you are one part of it. I want you to know that even if I may hate what you do, I will never stop loving you. I want you to play nicely with others. I want you to feed your curiosity. I want you to find a way to do what you enjoy, and realize that it might look different than you originally thought. 
        I want you to respect every human being’s right to be who they are. At times I want you to be more interested in someone else than in yourself and help others like you help yourself. I want you to know that you are flawed and you are extraordinary. There is no one else like you. 
       I want you to know that I would lay down my life for you any day of the week. I want you to know you’re blessed by our great God who has created you and forgiven you. I want you to know love, even if it means getting hurt. I want you to be good to others and to yourself. You will learn life can be hard, but with God’s help you can handle it. Always know that I will love you, no matter what.

Love, Mom

P.S. I wouldn’t mind getting a card now and then.

Monday, May 4, 2015

HELPING EACH OTHER


(From my new devotional, Day By Day With Jesus, to be published this fall)
 
When I lived in California, I learned about Cinco de Mayo, when Hispanics celebrate their Mexican heritage by remembering an unlikely victory of the Mexican army over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.
Jesus said, “Come unto me and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) This is an encouraging Bible verse. If you’re tired, come to Jesus. If the weight of the world is on your shoulders, come to Jesus. If life is crushing you, come to Jesus. Come to Him and He will give you rest. All things have been given to Jesus by the Father. Because He is truly human, He understands the burdens of our world. He understands the burden of human sin and the devastation it causes.
Sin has the power to destroy families, churches and the world. But Jesus has defeated sin. Satan has been beaten by the cross! We do not have to carry the burden of our sins any longer. Jesus did that for us fully on Calvary, and when God finishes something, it is finished! We do not have to do it over again. There is no burden Jesus cannot help us carry.
Some boys in a small town were playing on abandoned railroad tracks. One boy was clumsy and the others made fun of him. They all decided to see how far they could walk on a single track. The big boys each walked a long way before falling off. The clumsy fellow barely walked a few steps before he fell, so they laughed at him. But one said to him, ”Hold my hand!” And the two boys walked the tracks together, holding hands side by side, one on one track and one on the other. Together they walked three times as far as those who walked alone. Two together did what one could not do alone.
Jesus walks beside us too. He holds our hand when we are shaky and leads us when we are unsure or weary of the world. He will even carry us when we are too tired. It’s His promise, and Jesus never goes back on his promises.

Watch to see how you can help someone today.