Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

Next week it will be one year since my family and I came to our “new church,” Shrewsbury First Assembly (SFA). I can’t believe how time has flown by!   Through this year, we’ve settled into a new home, gotten to know a new part of New Jersey (especially the beaches!), and most of all have begun to pastor a new group of people. It’s been a privilege to get to know the people of SFA and begin to minister to them and lead them.   I feel honored to be in this place, at this time, with this part of God’s people.   I recognize God’s grace and kindness towards me in allowing me to serve as pastor of this church.   I say all of this because it is easy for us as pastors to take our role for granted. We often fail to realize the importance of what God has called us to, and the privilege that is ours in serving his church.   And, we get distracted from what it is God has called us to do. Overtime, I have come to realize that God has not first of all called me to be a church growth expert, ad

Last week my brother John and his family came to visit.   That meant going to the beach (of course!) for the afternoon with him, his wife, Kivian, and their four young boys. When we got to the ocean the waves were perfect for the kids to ride their boogey boards—not too big, but coming fast.   So after a bit, John and I took his two oldest boys down to the area where they were allowed to ride.   I watched for a bit as my nephews, Landon and Nathan, tried to get their board out beyond the breaking waves in order to get a ride. At their size, working against the force of the waves was tough. Not only that, but it seemed they couldn’t fully get on the board.   So, I decided to help out.   Taking Nathan by the hand, I told him to hold onto the board and I would hold onto him until we got further out.   As the waves beat against me, I pulled Nathan up and over the on-coming waves till we got out to where the larger waves were coming in.   When we were out at the right spot, I helped Na

I have no words when I think about… Black families who mourn the loss of two more of their own as they wonder whether or not their son will be next; Police officers and their families who mourn for their brothers slain—and who now fear for their own lives as they serve our cities;    A people wherein racial divides have long outlived the laws passed to eradicate them; A nation in which there will be no moral and ethical options offered in the voting booth come this November;   A society that asks us to, not only accept what we know to be wrong, but as well to celebrate it; A culture that entertains itself with violence, sex, cynicism, sarcasm, and things that degrade the weakest and most vulnerable among us; A world in which evil continues to dominate and at times almost blocks out the light;   A church that is more concerned with its programs, politics, and protecting its own interests than in the people to whom it was called to bring the good news of

This weekend we will celebrate our nation’s 240 th “birthday!”   July 4 th is the day that we remember the signing of the Declaration of Independence by our nation’s founders.   Included in that document is the sentence, “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal , that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”    Our government was founded on the principle that every person, being equal to all other persons, has the right to pursue, and thus hopefully experience, those three virtues that are mentioned: “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”   I tend to think, however, in today’s environment we have especially misunderstood and misinterpreted that final virtue, “Happiness.”   We have taken that phrase, “the pursuit of Happiness,” far beyond what was in the minds of our founders.   Whereas, they considered a life of happiness to mean having the basic