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Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Pressure Illustrations

Devotional Thoughts and Teaching Illustrations About Pressure



Edmond Church Family,

Hope you're having a great week!

We got an Instant Pot for Christmas. It’s great, you can cook frozen chicken in a matter of minutes, and it’s edible! I even eat something called Quinoa cooked in this modern multi-cooker, and it actually tastes good.

The Instant Pot looks like a reinforced crockpot with a bomb timer slapped on the front of it. Evidently, it cooks using extremely high pressure. When the timer goes off, and the food is done, we release the pressure valve and watch as a steady flow of steam spews into the air. Without removing the pressure, opening the pot would be disastrous.

It appears that some of us are like Instant Pots right now. After a long year of uncertainty and unforeseen challenges, there seems to be a lot of pressure building up.

Many of us are just holding it all in and may not even know it. Unless we have a healthy and safe way to release the pressure, sooner or later we will explode. Maybe you’ve been there recently.

You lose your patience with a store clerk.

You rant and rave about something unimportant. 

You explode at your spouse or child.

You feel a wave of road rage wash over you.

You burst into tears.

You scream and yell. Or just the opposite, you shut down emotionally.

You say things you later regret.

You react impulsively. 

While you may feel better in that instant (see what I did there?), your actions and words cause damage. Relationships suffer. People get hurt. Unity and progress are impeded. Damage is done.

Maybe right now is a good time for an honest self-assessment. How are you doing…how are you really doing? 

Do you feel overly stressed? Are you allowing challenges and adversity to gnaw at you? Are people getting under your skin? Is there a chance you are stuffing all the anxiety and uncertainty of a challenging year or a difficult situation deep inside as you try to keep moving forward?  

Sooner or later—unless you deal with the sources and symptoms of your stress and find a safe way to release the building pressure—you’re going to explode. 

Before you say or do something harmful, please do something helpful. 

Talk to a trusted friend or counselor. Pray, fast, and participate in other spiritual disciplines. Get moving and get some sleep. Build in Sabbath rest. But most of all, lean on God.

A short verse in the passage I plan to preach on this Sunday as we conclude our “Exiles” series tells us, very simply, what to do with all that pressure, all that stress and all that frustration: 

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

In one short inspired verse of scripture we are told what to do and why to do it. Recognize the pressure building up inside you and the burden of stress you are carrying, and let go of it. All of it.

More specifically, give it to God. Let him take it off your shoulders and out of your heart, and let Him replace it with healing and hope.

Cast your anxiety on him. That’s the what, but even more notably, here’s the why: “…because he cares for you.” 

God cares deeply for you. He cares that you are carrying what feels like the weight of the world. He cares that you are going through a tough time. God cares that you are hurting, or grieving or struggling. He cares that you have experienced great loss or that you can’t seem to catch a break.

He hurts with you and cares for you. 

God wants to carry what is weighing you down. Jesus already bore your greatest burden when he willingly went to the cross. He removed the sins that separate you from God.

Not only is God’s care for you unmatched, his strength is unequaled. No burden you are trying to carry is too heavy for him. So give it to him, and leave it with him. Don’t take it back. You can trust God.

Letting pressure continue to build will only result in a destructive explosion. God wants to help you, so just let him. 

Hope you’ll join us for worship Sunday.
Grace & Peace,
Randy 


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#Pressure
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2 Corinthians 9:7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”
2 Corinthians 11:28 - And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Proverbs 24:10 If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.
Psalms 32:4 (MSG) The pressure never let up; all the juices of my life dried up.
Psalms 32:5 (MSG) Then I let it all out; I said, “I’ll come clean about my failures to God .” Suddenly the pressure was gone— my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared.
Judges 20:45 (MSG) Five divisions turned to escape to the wilderness, to Rimmon Rock, but the Israelites caught and slaughtered them on roads. Keeping the pressure on, the Israelites brought down two more divisions.
Revelation 2:13 (MSG) “I see where you live, right under the shadow of Satan’s throne. But you continue boldly in my Name; you never once denied my Name, even when the pressure was worst, when they martyred Antipas, my witness who stayed faithful to me on Satan’s turf.
James 1:2 Trials and Temptations Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
Romans 5:3 And not only this, but [with joy] let us exult in our sufferings and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance;
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Logos Dictionary Themes
A state of personal anxiety, strain or tension resulting from the pressures of human life. 
But God cannot ignore sin and will not. He brings pressure upon us, often very acute pressure, until we acknowledge the sin, confess it, and return to him. --James Montgomery Boice

You Think About It!
Kevin Rayner


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Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Joy Illustrations

Devotional Thoughts and Teaching Illustrations About Joy

Pursuit for Joy
Men have pursued joy in every avenue imaginable. Some have successfully found it while others have not. Perhaps it would be easier to describe where joy cannot be found:
  • Not in Unbelief — Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote: “I wish I had never been born.”
  • Not in Pleasure — Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote: “The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone.”
  • Not in Money — Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: “I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth.”
  • Not in Position and Fame — Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: “Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”
  • Not in Military Glory — Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, before he said, “There are no more worlds to conquer.”
  • Where then is real joy found? — the answer is simple, in Christ alone.

Let Your Balloon Go
A conference at a Presbyterian church in Omaha. People were given helium-filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. Since they were Presbyterians, they weren’t free to say “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord.” All through the service balloons ascended, but when it was over one-third of the balloons were unreleased. Let your balloon go.
Bruce Larson, Luke, p. 43

Christians
As a third-century man was anticipating death, he penned these last words to a friend: “It’s a bad world, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people are the Christians—and I am one of them.”
Moody Bible Institute’s, Today In The Word, June, 1988, p. 18

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#Joy
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Romans 15:13 ESV May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Romans 12:12 ESV Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Philippians 4:4 ESV Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
James 1:2 ESV Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
Galatians 5:22 ESV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Psalm 16:11 ESV You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
John 16:24 ESV Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Proverbs 17:22 ESV A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Luke 2:10 (NIV) But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.
John 15:11 (NIV) I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Hebrews 12:2 (NIV) fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
1 Peter 1:8 (NIV) Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
Philippians 4:4 (NIV) Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
John 16:24 (NIV) Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
Philippians 2:1 If then I can appeal to you as the followers of Christ, if there is any persuasive power in love and any common sharing of the Spirit, or if you have any tender-heartedness and compassion, make my joy complete by being of one mind,
Acts 2:46 And every day, devoting themselves [to meeting] with one purpose in the temple [courts] and breaking bread from house [to house], they were eating [their] food with joy and simplicity of heart,
Psalm 16:11 ESV You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Proverbs 17:22 ESV A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.



You Think About it!
Kevin Rayner




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Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Composure Illustrations

Devotional Thoughts and Teaching Illustrations About Composure & Poise

Illustrations:
Carol Burnett
Actress Carol Burnett got out of a cab one day and caught her coat in the door. The driver was unaware of her plight and slowly began to edge out into traffic. To keep from being pulled off her feet, the comedienne had to run alongside down the block.
A passerby noted her predicament and quickly alerted the driver. He stopped, jumped out, and released Miss Burnett’s coat. “Are you all right?” he asked anxiously.
“Yes,” she gasped, “but how much more do I owe you?”
Bits and Pieces, November, 1989, p. 6

Devotional Thoughts


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Genesis 42:24 (NLT) Now he turned away from them and began to weep. When he regained his composure, he spoke to them again. Then he chose Simeon from among them and had him tied up right before their eyes.
Genesis 43:31 (NLT) After washing his face, he came back out, keeping himself under control. Then he ordered, “Bring out the food!”
Ecclesiastes 10:4 (NLT) If your boss is angry at you, don’t quit! A quiet spirit can overcome even great mistakes.
2 Thessalonians 2:2 (NLT) Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us.
2 Thessalonians 2:2 (LEB) that you not be easily shaken from your composure, nor be troubled either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter ⌞alleged to be from us⌟ , to the effect that the day of the Lord has arrived.
Ecclesiastes 10:5 (NLT) There is another evil I have seen under the sun. Kings and rulers make a grave mistake
Romans 8:25 (NLT) But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
John 18:36 ESV Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

Logos Dictionary Themes


COMPOSURE (Calmness, Self-Control, Serenity)
    How can we develop composure?

                 BIBLE READING: 2 Samuel 16:5–14
           KEY BIBLE VERSE: Perhaps the LORD will see that I am being wronged and will bless me because of these curses. (2 Samuel 16:12)

           Composure develops under pressure. Shimei kept up a steady tirade against David. Although his curses were unjustified because David had no part in Saul’s death, David and his followers quietly tolerated the abuse. Maintaining your composure in the face of unjustified criticism can be a trying experience and an emotional drain, but if you can’t stop criticism, it is best just to ignore it. Remember that God knows what you are enduring, and he will vindicate you if you are in the right.

                 BIBLE READING: John 19:1–16
           KEY BIBLE VERSE: “You won’t talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or to crucify you?” (John 19:10)

           Composure develops when we trust God. Throughout the trial we see that Jesus was in control, not Pilate or the religious leaders. Pilate vacillated, the Jewish leaders reacted out of hatred and anger, but Jesus remained composed. He knew the truth, he knew God’s plan, and he knew the reason for his trial. Despite the pressure and persecution, Jesus remained unmoved. It was really Pilate and the religious leaders who were on trial, not Jesus. When you are questioned or ridiculed because of your faith, remember that while you may be on trial before your accusers, they are on trial before God.
--Wilson, N. S. (2000). In The Handbook of Bible application (p. 102). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

You Think About It!
Kevin Rayner


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