It is hard to imagine being three feet tall, but many years ago, I was half my size.  I used to stand on my tiptoes and strain to reach inside the top drawers of my clothes dresser, groping blindly with my short little arms to feel around in the dark corners for my belongings.  I specifically remember the day when I realized I could see the dust on the top of my dresser without assistance.  I thought I had been cleaning everything, but I missed a few spots.  Even today, I clean the top of the refrigerator myself, because I’m the only one in the house who has the perspective to see when it needs cleaning.

There are some perspectives that I don’t think I will ever grow to visualize, at least with my earthly vision.  In the “love” chapter of the Bible, the writer says “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” (ESV 1 Corinthians 13:11).  Like a child on our tiptoes, groping in the dark, we are expected to have a limited perspective.  Maybe this is why we still have difficulty seeing the way God sees.  We are looking at life from our perspective and not His.

The front door of our home has a glass that is difficult to see through.  I can see movement through the glass, but the prism effect of the light passing through often confuses my senses.  Sometimes I “see” a car in the driveway, but it is just a car driving by.  Sometimes I “see” someone on my front lawn, but it turns out to be a couple of leaves falling from the trees.  God’s Word continues where it left off with a similar picture of perspective: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (ESV 1 Corinthians 13:12).  The picture being drawn uses the fuzzy image of our own face, as seen in a piece of the best polished glass of the day – 2000 years ago – and comparing it to the clarity of seeing the flesh of a real person face to face.  The perspective of our earthly knowledge is only giving us a fuzzy image, like that of an inexperienced child, but in the future “I shall know fully.”  The writer is trying to get us to see life through the eyes and maturity of the knower of all things, who stands on the other side of the blurry prism glass called time.  We also need to know that we cannot know all things.

When we ask questions like “why does God let people go to hell?” or “why does God allow suffering in the world?” we are seeing things from the wrong side of the glass.  We live our lives as a child with selfish and pleasure seeking minds, wondering “how could God do this to me?”  Questions like these do not have significance when we understand who God is.  We need to stand up on a stool and look down on the dust, which is our life.


I know a number of people who claim that they do not need God.  I don’t think they ever considered that God does not need us.  Why would an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent being want anything to do with us?  He is perfect and demands perfection.  Human kind has made a mess of His creation and then turned their backs on the Creator for letting their sin happen.  Why would God still want us?



He loves us.



Like a teenager who curses at their parents, we get angry at God for the life we are dealt.  And like a rebellious teenager, we dishonor and deny our creator, even though He is the one who gave and sustains our life.  But like a parent who never quits loving their child, God came to earth himself, as the Christ, to show us the truth of His love.  He stepped out of infinity into our finite world to tell us what is on the other side of that fuzzy glass.



Yes, God does not need us.  This is why our perspective needs to change to HIM and not US; pleasing HIM and not seeking our own pleasures; being SELFLESS instead of SELFISH.  Do you see?  God did not have to come to earth and be nailed to a cross.  He did it so that we could be with Him.  We always picture it the other way around – that the message of the cross is all about us, when in fact, the message of the cross is all about God.







Pastor Jay Merritt

Darkness, frustration and disappointment are often the songs that ring loudest after the brilliant Christmas lights and joyful carols have faded.  The emotional highs of the holidays, can crash to the deepest lows in the long nights of winter.  Missed expectations and selfish thoughts overwhelm the positive outlook on life.  Negative talk fuels dark thoughts to become like a contagious cancer that eats at the very soul.

Getting caught in a negative train of thought is so easy, making long lists in the mind of all the bad things that are wrong in the world and counting all the problems that are weighing us down.  We stand back and let the bright portrait of ourselves be painted over as victims instead of victors, one dark brush stroke at a time.  Our problems root deeper into our minds and fuel more negative ideas until they grow so deep we find ourselves in a pit of despair.  Our life becomes stuck in a rut full of waist deep mud and we’re sinking fast.  I heard that “a rut is just a grave with the ends knocked out,” and I believe it.

Are you there?  How do you get out?

First of all, turn off the TV and radio for a few weeks, especially the daily news and talk radio.  Broadcasters “sell” the news with negative stories and disasters.  Stop hanging around negative people and politely step away when their gossip fans the flames of the negative fires.  Stay away from alcohol.  Alcohol is a depressant and can fuel the dark thoughts in your mind.  Find a way to quiet all the commotion in your life and your mind with exercise, reading and prayer.

In the hymn, Count Your Blessings, written by Johnson Oatman, Jr. in 1897, the blessings God gives can be rediscovered by examining life and the simple necessities:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will keep singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
Count your many blessings—wealth can never buy
Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.


Take up a pad of paper and a pencil.  Make a list of blessings.  I’ve taught for many years, that we only really NEED five things to survive in life:

1.         Clean, disease free water
2.         Nutritious food
3.         A roof to cover us from the weather
4.         Warmth to keep from freezing
5.         Seasonably appropriate clothing

Anything else makes you rich, in the eyes of half the world.  

Add your own “blessings” to the list.  Here are some to consider:

·         You can read
·         Hugs and smiles
·         Sunshine AND rain
·         The breeze
·         The moon
·         God’s infinite creation
·         The wonder of how “the very hairs of your head are numbered” by God (Luke 12:7)
·         Prayer

Keep your list with you for a week and add to it.  Tape it to your bathroom mirror.  Meditate on it.  Thank God for His blessings every day.  It takes 21 days to make a bad habit.  It takes the same amount of time to establish a new, good habit, so it may take that long to shake off negative feelings.

Do you have the five things needed to survive?  Do you have extra blessings?  Be content and count your blessings. 

The Apostle Paul, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit reminds us:

"Now godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content." - 1 Timothy 6:6-8

He also said:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” - Philippians 4:6-8

Be blessed,

Pastor Jay Merritt