Hello my dear friends! I pray that you are all doing well; enjoying the Lord’s favor and blessings in your life.

In saying that, I must be honest, ( wow what a concept, a Pastor being honest) I don’t particularly like the place the Lord currently has me in. Now I know Paul says in Philippians 4:12, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation;” let me say, I have not learned that secret yet.

I was saying to Gail, my wife the other day that I felt that it was never going to get warm here in Las Vegas. Now to those who have lived in Las Vegas for any length of time, that sounds like a silly statement, right.

See, we have no real sense of Spring here in Vegas. If we have a time of Spring in Vegas, it usually lasts for about 2 weeks, then we go from the 80’s right to the 100’s and up. Yet, even knowing that, I still felt like the cold days of winter would never go away. It sort of feels that way in our spiritual lives at times.  

As I said to my wife Gail that for some reason I felt it was never going to get warm in Vegas, the Lord began to gently speak to my heart and He revealed to me that He had me in a season of major change in my life. 

I love watching all those old All in the Family comedy shows (I know, I am a sick person). I especially love the character of Archie Bunker, played by Carrol O Conner. In one episode, Archie’s wife Edith, played by Jean Stapleton, was going through the change and Archie wasn’t going to have any part of it. In one scene Edith was having a moment that women who are going through the change have 🙂  Archie yells at Edith saying, “If  you are going through the change then do it now and do it quickly. Change!!”

We may chuckle at how silly Archie’s demand to Edith that she go through the change process quickly, but in a sense, don’t we say the same thing to the Lord when He is doing a work in us? We tell the Lord,  “Lord if You are doing a work in my life, I wish You would do it quickly and please don’t let the work You are doing in my life disrupt me or cause me any discomfort.”

Isaiah 45:9 “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter. ‘What are You making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands? “ Isaiah 64:8  “Yet, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay. You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.”

 Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” All of us have seen a picture or painting of a magnificent sunset or have actually witnessed one with our very own eyes. Though many artists have tried to capture the beauty of those sunsets on canvas, they still fail to completely capture all the magnificent colors in the sky and the beauty of the sun as it sets. Truly that is the work of the Master painter.

I recently had asked the Lord to change me and little did I realize that He would actually take me up on that.  We all know we are to be made more like Christ but we all hate the process that it takes to get there.

Psalm 92:4-5 “For You make me glad by Your deeds , O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of Your hands. How great are Your works, O Lord, how profound Your thoughts.”

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

I realized that it wasn’t up to me as to how the change the Lord was doing in my life would take place or when it would happen; you know, when the nice weather would come and it would get warm 🙂 Change would come only as I allowed the Master Painter and Potter to do His work in my life and in His time schedule. As the Lord was shaping my life, and bringing about His change, I had to completely trust that He knew exactly what He was doing.

My dear brother and sister, do you feel like your life  is stuck in a dark cold place right now? David declares in Psalm 30 :11 “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.”

Take comfort my dear friend, the Almighty Lord is teaching you a new dance step, so to speak 🙂 and if you will just hang in there till He is finished, then just like David, you will be able to dance before the Lord so that all may see His work in your life and feel His joy!!