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November 9, 2022

The Cookie Thief 

A woman was waiting at an airport one night for several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shop, bought a bag of cookies, and found a place to drop. She was engrossed in her book but happened to see that the man beside her, as bold as could be, grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between, which she tried to ignore, to avoid a scene. She read, munched cookies, and watched the clock, as the gutsy “cookie thief” diminished her stock. She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I’d blacken his eye!” With each cookie she took, he took one too. When only one was left, she wondered what he’d do. With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half. He offered her half as he ate the other. She snatched it from him and thought, “Oh brother— This guy has some nerve, and he’s also rude. Why, he didn’t even show any gratitude!” She had never known when she had been so galled, and sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate, refusing to look back at the “thieving ingrate.” She boarded the plane and sank in her seat, then sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise. There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes! “If mine are here,” she moaned with despair, “then the others were his, and he tried to share!” Too late to apologize, she realized with grief, that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief. (Author unknown.) 

 That story reminds me that sometimes in life you just have to laugh at yourself and not take yourself too seriously. Being carefree is no easy thing. There is a lot that bogs us down with the cares of the day. This is what I love about God’s Word. It can be so deep while, at the same time, so practical. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” But is that practical? Paul continues, “. . . Do not be anxious about anything.” I kind of like the way the King James Version expresses it: “Be careful for nothing.” That is actually a way of expressing the negative side of “rejoicing.” Paul says that the way in which we can rejoice is to be “full of care about nothing” (don’t become filled with anxiety). Jesus was getting at the same thought when He taught: 

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25).
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

November 8, 2022

Our worship focuses on Jesus. Along with this, Jesus even provides us with the words to offer Him, the water that cleanses, and the bread and wine that nourish us. He gives me the Spirit to enlighten me as to His goodness. It is truly all about Him. He serves us before we can serve Him. 

For me, the joy of worship is that it gives me the opportunity to celebrate His goodness and faithfulness with other believers. I hear someone once in a while say, “I can worship God at home or in the woods.” I suppose they are right, but why would you want to, in place of celebrating it with other believers? The questions I want to ask someone who says that are, “Would you want to celebrate your birthday alone?” “Would you want to celebrate a Super Bowl win alone?” It is only natural that at times of celebration we seek to share that joy. This, to me, is the beauty of congregational worship. It adds to our joy while, at the same time, uniting us as one Body. God asked Israel in the Old Testament to gather together three times a year to celebrate His goodness. Those were festival holidays. Those moments gave them joy and strength and unity. 

The Christian Church of the twenty-first century needs this no less. One of our most enticing mission responses that we can offer the world is the witness of believers in the celebration of worship. 

On a clear night, look up at the stars and try to count them. Stand in awe of Him. Look at your eye in the mirror. Your retina is thinner than paper, yet its tiny surface contains 137 million light-sensitive cells. Blink your eyes in wonder. Then look into His Word and see Him on the Cross. He is there for you. See the empty Tomb. You need not fear the grave any longer. Then, with other believers, let your soul magnify Him in worship
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

November 3, 2022

It is the Word of God, as Luther says, that is the very “cradle of Christ.” Each page is a lens through which I see Christ and the unfolding plan and wisdom of God. 

 “No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him,’ but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2: 7-10). 

The Word of God alone enables me to answer the question that God asked to Adam and Eve in the Garden: “Where are you?” Ever since then, people have been trying to respond and answer that question. Scripture alone is able to give us the answer. It is one that can only be found at the foot of the Cross. 

As the Lord is revealed through the lens of His Word, we are then invited to magnify that view through one more lens—the lens of worship. 

God-pleasing worship is about Him. When Mary was told that she was pregnant with the Christ, she worshipped. Her first words were, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” What a great definition for worship: “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Helping me to get a handle on this, I find these words helpful from the King James Version of the Bible: 

 “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11). 

 “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom and strength, and honour, and glory and blessing . . . Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (Revelation 5:12-13).
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

November 2, 2022

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet all flocks and herds, and the beast of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth” (Psalm 8). 

The earth and the universe celebrate the majesty and glory of God. Talking rocks and clapping and singing trees. He is a God that just makes you stand back and smile and stand in awe. The awe of God is different than the fear of God. Fear makes us shrink back while awe draws us in. The awe of God is “to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in common and the simple, to feel in the rush of the passing, the stillness of the eternal” (Heschel, p. 75). 
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

November 1, 2022

Microscopes and telescopes caught my interest as I was growing up. What is not to love for a junior high kid looking through the lens of a microscope and seeing all types of crawling and creepy things? It was as if I was looking at another world within a world. As for the telescope, I stood in wonder looking through it at the vastness of the universe. I suspect that in seventh grade the word “vastness” was not in my vocabulary. “Huge” and “gigundo” are words that better describe my thinking at that time. 

Whatever the words, the lens of the microscope and the telescope gave witness to God. Microbes and stars shouted out with His praise: 

 “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy” (Psalm 96: 11-12). 

It is a pretty amazing universe when you think about, where rocks can talk and trees sing and clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12). Just the picture of that in my mind makes me laugh. I especially like the way Psalm 96:11-12 reads in the translation from The Message: “Let’s hear it from Sky, With Earth joining in, And a huge round of applause from Sea. Let Wilderness turn cartwheels, Animals, come dance, Put every tree of the forest in the choir.”
 

At the speed of light, you could travel from Earth to the center of the Milky Way in 33,000 years. It is estimated that the Milky Way contains about 100,000,000 stars. It would take you more than 3,000 years to count them at the rate of one per second! That is just our galaxy. There are thousands of others. 

 “For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary” (Psalm 96:4-6

October 30, 2022

Jeremy Camp, a Christian songwriter, had only been married for a few months when his wife, Melissa, was diagnosed with cancer. She had come home from the hospital and asked him to get his guitar so that they could sing and worship. The song she wanted him to play was, “For You Are Good.” Even in the midst of her dying, Melissa knew that God alone deserved the praise that her heart could offer. Weeks after Melissa’s death, Jeremy wrote a song entitled, “I Still Believe”: 

Scattered words and empty thoughts 

Seem to pour from my heart. 

I’ve never felt so torn before, 

Seems I don’t know where to start. 

But it’s now that I feel your grace 

fall like rain From every fingertip, 

washing away my pain. 

I still believe in your faithfulness. 

I still believe in your truth. 

I still believe in your Holy Word, 

Even when I don’t see, I still believe. 

Though the questions still fog up my mind 

With promises, I still seem to bear, 

Even when answers slowly unwind, 

It’s my heart I see you prepare. 

But it’s now that I feel your grace 

fall like rain From every fingertip, 

washing away my pain. 

I still believe in your faithfulness. 

I still believe in your truth. 

I still believe in your Holy Word, 

Even when I don’t see, I still believe. 

The only place I can go is into your arms, 

Where I throw to you my feeble prayers. 

In brokenness I can see that this was your will for me. 

Help me to know you are near. 

I still believe in your faithfulness. 

I still believe in your truth. 
 

I still believe in your Holy Word, 

Even when I don’t see, I still believe.
 

Even in the midst of pain or in days when we are confused and torn, the Cross assures us of God’s love, and the empty Tomb proclaims His victory. I love the words from Romans 8: 

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that has loved us” (v. 37). 

No matter what Satan throws at us, no matter how unfairly the world treats us, we are more than conquerors. We do not merely win out over evil because Christ—He even takes every wound, every hurt, every failure, and weaves them into the fabric of our life’s story. More than conquerors. 

Today is the day. “This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Christ is ready to reveal Himself as the Victor.
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

October 27, 2022

There is a story of a little boy who came home from Sunday School on Easter Sunday very excited about what he had learned. He raced into the kitchen and shouted, “Wow, I learned what Jesus said when He burst out of the tomb on Easter morning!” His mom and dad were excited too, and they asked him, “Well what did He say on the first Easter morning?” And the little boy ran up to them, threw his hands up in the air, and shouted “TA-DA!” (Bimler, p. 14). 

Obviously, the young boy has paraphrased Jesus a little bit. I suspect, though, that he is capturing the essence of joy and celebration that were evident that first Easter morning. “TA-DA—Here I am! I am alive, just as I said!” As a result, our lives are “TA-DA!” lives. We are able to enter each day in the confidence that Jesus is alive. Wherever we go, we give witness and bear testimony to the truth that Jesus is alive and ready to reveal Himself. Even in those days when the challenges are overwhelming, Christ stands ready to say to us, “TA-DA!” His resurrection gives us the ability to say with joyous defiance, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). What day is the Psalmist referring to in this verse? Look two verses earlier at verse 22:

“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (vv. 22-24).
 

What so many thought to be worthless (the life of Christ, and so they discarded it), God raises up and uses it as the cornerstone for what He is building. The day He has made is the Day of Resurrection, which makes every day a “TA-DA!” day—a day for rejoicing and celebrating. The joy of the resurrection is so great and timeless that it cannot be confined to one single day.
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

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