Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

Recently I’ve been ministering to quite a number of people who are going through some pretty tough times. For some it’s sickness; for others it’s anxiety and stress. Some are facing job challenges. Some are experiencing marital conflict or family issues.   Kim and I too have some stuff we are dealing with in our own lives.   The question that seems to arise over and over again is what I would call the big question of life: Why God? That is, is there any purpose to the many difficulties that we face in our lives? Is there any reason behind the sickness, stress, and challenging situations we are facing? Or, is it all just for naught?   Now, I don’t want to give the impression that God brings all kinds of bad stuff into our lives in order to fulfill some master design, using us as if we are mere pawns on a cosmic chessboard!   The truth is, most often, the difficulties and pain that we face within our lives are a result of the fact that we live in a fallen world

Yesterday afternoon I came out to the University of Valley Forge (our regional Assemblies of God college) with three students from our church for what they call, “Breakaway.”   It’s meant to be a 24 hour college experience for high school students—of course, with the hope that some of them might choose to attend the school.   To begin the event, their was a service with a drama, worship, prayer, and an inspiring message by a guest speaker, all to inspire the students to seek God’s will for their lives and to be praying about their future. The message was about Zacchaeus, the tax collector of Luke 19 who, because he was so short climbed a tree in order to see Jesus through the crowd.   Jesus looks up and sees Zacchaeus in the tree and invites himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’ home (something that shocked the crowd but spoke volumes to Zacchaeus). By the end of the story, Zacchaeus is a changed man because of his time spent with Jesus.   And, Jesus concludes his time

As I mentioned in this devotional blog last week, our church is currently in the midst of its annual missions convention. Our theme is, “To the Ends Of the Earth!” Thus far we’ve had missionaries to Cambodia, Mexico, and Northern Asia.   This weekend we will host missionaries to Italy and Belize.   The other night we even “skyped” with a missionary to Bangledesh.   In other words, we are hearing from missionaries from just about every part of the world. (Of course, this year we are missing Africa and the South Pacific.) Hearing the stories of what God is doing around our world is absolutely incredible.   Even in places wherein we cannot actually send “missionaries,” God is making a way for the gospel to be preached.   People are responding and churches are being established.   And, we are now seeing missionaries going out from countries that at one time were only on the receiving end of missions—e.g. missionaries from Latin America going to the Middle East and missiona

What’s the furthest you’ve ever traveled?   California? Europe? China? Australia? Did you reach the end of the earth?   My furthest trip was to India via Dubai. It was a long and arduous trip (13 hours to Dubai, a long layover, followed by a 5 hour flight to Calcutta).   To me it felt like I had gone to the end of the earth.   I doubt the people there would have agreed.   Maybe in their minds I had just come from the end of the earth!   “To the Ends of the Earth,” is the theme for our mission’s convention that we begin this weekend here at the church I pastor, Shrewsbury First Assembly of God.   But the question comes to mind, where is the end of the earth?   Of course, the answer is, there is no end of the earth.   After all, the earth is round and thus, it is a continuous sphere.   Yet, we all know that there is meaning to the phrase, “to the ends of the earth.” “To the ends of the earth,” refers to those geographic points that are as far as one can get from their curre