We are excited to announce some new features to the blogsite. As more and more readers are viewing from foreign countries we have added the translate feature to the site. Our readers can also now choose to have the blog emailed to them, and they can search the blog by keywords on various topics. We hope that this makes the site more manageable for you. God Bless.

Hear current audio messages by Pastor Scott Burr at:
http://sermon.net/dayspringchurchag

Thursday, November 18, 2010

“Where Are You?”

I was surprised recently, while I was browsing on YouTube, by how many videos are posted of people who are driving around lost. I began to think that if there are that many posted videos…how many people get lost and don’t post it? How many people are we passing everyday who are lost?

You see, we are not lost because we don’t know where we came from. We are not lost because we don’t know where we are going. Lost is not knowing where we ARE along the way! Have you ever left home to go somewhere and somehow along the way ended up someplace that is unfamiliar to you. I think we have all been unsettled, to some degree, from time to time from being lost. Spiritually we all have a similar story. We all started from the same place- steeped in sin, separated from God and we all have a desire to reach the same eternal destination-heaven. However, not everyone makes it.

Fortunately for us, Jesus has a heartbeat for lost people:

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Luke 19:10

Jesus was man who understood how easy it could be to get off course. In John 8:14 Jesus said:

“I know where I came from and where I am going!

Jesus knew that He had come from God and was returning to God (John 13:3). Yet, along the way there were plenty of opportunities for Him to get off track. In John 6:15 some wanted to take Him by force and make him king. Although it wasn’t His time. In Luke 4:28-30 we read how some wanted to kill Him prematurely before He finished His work. Satan even tried to get Him off track in Luke 4:5-8 by tempting Him with the kingdoms of this world. Taking any of these paths would have kept Jesus from His final destination.

Let’s face it, it doesn’t take much to get us off course. Just ask a ship’s navigator how a 1 degree miscalculation can affect the destination of a vessel on a long voyage.
Jesus said in John 14:6:

“I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

To deviate off that path even 1 degree will leave us far from our eternal destination.

The problem is people don’t like to admit to being lost. Daniel Boone once said: “I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.” As humorous as that may be, there is a sobering reality, for those who deviate from the path, found in Proverbs 14:12:

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

Take time today to determine where you are on your spiritual journey. Are you still on course? Have you deviated from the path? Jesus is the Way, the Truth and Life. You must keep in step with Him if you are going to reach your eternal destination!




Pastor Scott Burr http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com

Thursday, November 11, 2010

“That Your Faith Not Fail”

(Part 3 of 3 )

“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.”

Hebrews 11:6

Satan knows that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” And so, he uses events, circumstances and weaknesses (like a sieve) to separate us from our faith.
This type of an attack by Satan is not unique to the apostles. It is a tactic that Satan has employed since the earliest of times. If fact, one such instance is recorded in one of the oldest books of the Bible- the book of Job. In the book, God puts forth Job as a righteous man, to which Satan protests saying:

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

Job 1:9-11

So God gave Satan permission to test job. Satan began by sifting Job of his possessions. First the Sabeans attacked and carried off Job’s oxen and donkeys. Then fire from heaven fell from the sky and burned up Job’s sheep. Later, the Chaldeans attacked and carried off Job’s camels. Then, tragically, Job’s children are killed when a mighty wind collapses the home they are all inside. However, even after losing so much Job maintained his integrity:

“At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Job 1:20-21

In all of this Job did not lose faith, so Satan returned asserting that Job would not be so blameless if he didn’t have his health:

“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

Job 2:4-5

So God gave Satan permission to inflict Job with painful sores from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. All Job could do was sit and scrape himself with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. Things got so bad that even Job’s wife asked him: “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” Yet Job refused to give up his faith. He told his wife in Job 2:10... “Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?”

Finally Job was placed in the sieve of contention. When Job’s friends came, under the guise of friendship, they began to mock, criticize and ridicule Job for bringing this calamity upon himself. Instead of encouraging him and building him up, they each took turns tearing him down. Yet, in the midst of this contention, Job declared:

“Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.”

Job 13:15

Satan had sifted Job of his wealth, health and closest relationships, but he could not get separate Job from his faith! Satan does not care if you are rich or poor, healthy or sick, surrounded by friends or lonely! Many of you are facing some very difficult and pressing times right now. Like Job it seems that Satan has sifted you dry, but when the tossing and shaking are over, if you hold on to your faith… you win!

Pastor Scott Burr http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com

Thursday, November 4, 2010

That Your Faith Not Fail

(Part 2 of 3 )

“Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered. He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”

Luke 22:35-36

Jesus, recognizing He was on the verge of His crucifixion, again, attempted to convey to His disciples the intense changes that were about to take place. Prior to this, when they had walked with Him, they had lacked nothing, but soon He would be crucified. Soon they would no longer have Him “physically” there to rely on. Soon, they would have to learn to walk by faith.

In this passage, He is encouraging them to make provision for what is about to take place:

“It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”

Luke 22:37

Peter’s response was abrupt and forceful, as he swore his undying allegiance to Christ promising to go to prison and even die for his Lord. Jesus, however, knew precisely what Peter would face and prayed that his faith would not fail. Jesus warned them that they would soon face a great sifting. In ancient Israel, a sifter was used to separate the wheat from the rubble. It was placed in the sifter and shaken aggressively causing the wheat to fall through and the debris to remain within the sifter. Jesus uses this analogy to explain to His disciples what was about to happen to them. Satan was about to sift them as wheat. His objective? He would put them in the sifter and aggressively shake them in an attempt to separate them from their faith.

Satan knows that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” And so, he uses events, circumstances and weaknesses to separate us from our faith. In Peter’s case, he used Peter’s pride to sift him. Peter had proclaimed, “I will go to prison and death with you!” He was certain that even if all the rest of the disciples fled, he would stand strong. Later, when Peter is confronted by a servant girl outside the home of the high priest, Peter begins to deny that he even knows Jesus. When the rooster crowed at daybreak he recalled Jesus’ answer to his boasting:

“Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”
Luke 22:34
Peter’s story serves as a reminder that we face a real enemy who desires to separate us from our faith. Peter and the disciples were not immune to it. In fact, Jesus warned them it would come. What, then, is separating you from your faith? Are you trapped in the sieve of poverty, sickness, wealth, ambition, unbelief or unforgiveness? And, if so, how do you overcome?


Pastor Scott Burr http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com