Pastor Bruce’s blog

I’m just realizing that it’s been almost a month since I wrote last!  Sorry everyone…

I was just reading today about Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.  You know, as great as Solomon was and as wise as he was, apparently he didn’t prepare his son well for the future.  We see that when he was given the kingdom of Israel that when he was approached by the people for some tax relief that he asked for time to consider a response.  He consulted with two sets of people.  One group was made up of the advisors his father Solomon had.  They were older, wiser actually, and suggested that Rehoboam lighten the heavy burden on the people.  The second group was made up of his young friends.  They told Rehoboam that he should be even tougher on the people, make them fear Rehoboam.  They were wrong in their advice.  But guess what?  Rehoboam took the younger advisors’ approach and the results were devastating.  What’s the lesson here?  Who you listen to is very important!!!  Are you listening to the Lord through the Scriptures and in prayer?  Are you talking to and relating to Godly people?  Who you consult in this life will have a great effect upon your future!  Get with the wise ones, not just someone you think you can relate to easily because of your age or stage of life.  Blessings, PB

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I received an email from Duane Motley’s “New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms” ministry in the last week or so.  In it there was a call to action sent out to ministers of the Gospel to go to Albany next week and lobby against recent developments surrounding our governor’s decision to make NYS agencies recognize gay “marriages” that were established in other places.  In doing so Governor Paterson bypassed the legislative process and made New York recognize these unions.  And I thought, “I’ve had enough.”  Our state continues to decline in so many ways, economically and otherwise, and yet our state government seems bent on making our state just that much more abhorrent to the Lord.  It’s not enough that we allow unborn children to be killed on a very regular basis, protecting the practice of shedding innocent blood.  But to call a homosexual union “marriage”, to redefine what has been established for thousands of years in all societies and clearly defined in our own country’s history and laws; it’s just enough.  It’s time to speak up clearly and say no.  Now don’t get me wrong.  We need to love every person who calls themselves gay or lesbian.  There’s a big difference between the issue and the persons involved.  God’s Son was given for them as well as us.  But to call right that which is so obviously wrong; we have to answer this well.  I’m going to Albany next week and I pray that I join a thousand other ministers there to speak up for right and against that which is wrong.  PB

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I had a great experience yesterday, one you wouldn’t necessarily think was great, but it was.  My grandmother and grandfather Plummer were the center of our rather large extended family during my growing up years.  Our home town was just outside of Albany, a suburb called Delmar.  My grandfather, Papa, my Dad and my Uncle Dave started and maintained a garden store and nursery business there.  It was the family business.  So we were all very close.  Papa died when I was attending college in the mid ’70’s and many things changed, but Nana, my grandmother, remained the queen bee of our family.  Until early Sunday morning when she died at the age of 101.  Now, I don’t get back to Delmar very often anymore, it’s just so busy here with family and church, but Nana had wanted me to do her funeral when that time came.  So with our family we went to Albany on Monday to plan for Nana’s funeral on Tuesday.  Bottom line was, it was a great experience. Nearly all our family was there; that was great in itself.  But the best thing was preaching to our whole family at the funeral home and the graveside.  It was so good to talk about Nana’s life, what she was like, to laugh at some of the many stories she created just by living.  But then, at the end of it all, I was able to share with my family the love and sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.  I was so thankful to have their full attention and for them to hear what I had to say.  My aunt surprised me though, in a good way.  She said that she hears the message every week as she attends Saddleback Church in California with her son and daughter in law!  And she was so positive in her response to the Gospel!  It couldn’t have been better.  Afterward we went to a cousin’s home to be together and visit.  I spent time with and introduced my kids to so many relatives they didn’t know they had.  And as we drove home it was hard for me not to be happy-teary at how the Lord blessed the day.  And blessed me with a family experience I couldn’t have even asked for, because it was too good to have imagined.  Thank you Lord Jesus, it made me so grateful to you for what You did there.  And with what you yet have in mind. 

Blessings, PB

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Psalm 116 says, “I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications.  Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.”

When we pray we’re sometimes tempted to just throw our thoughts out to the room we’re in, with little connection to the fact that God hears us.  God is attentive to everything in our lives!  In a sobering way, God says that He will judge every idle word of our mouths-ouch! But on the positive side, God also listens and acts upon what we say to Him.  He hears us.  So what’s on my heart I bring to God’s attention and He acts upon our conversation by causing the very best of His will to come to pass in my life.  He hears me.  And when I’m scared, seemingly underresouced and out of answers, or directly in the path of difficulty, all I need to do is speak to Him.  I can do it with all the emotion in my heart, with depth of despair and need and guess what?  He doesn’t condemn me, He “inclines His ear” to me.  And answers like a Father.  I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and supplications-He hears me.  Blessings, PB

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I was speaking with our Chinese friends on Tuesday and they were the ones who told me about the tragic earthquake that day in China.  As I’m sure you know, it was a nasty one; 7.9 on the Richter Scale and in a somewhat mountainous, yet populous, interior section of China.  I have grieved over photos of people trapped in rubble, mothers weeping over dead children and whole families living in makeshift shelters to keep them from the rain and cold.  There are many brethren there, thousands in fact.  Let’s pray for the dear Chinese people that are caught in this tremendous tragedy and believe the Lord for a way to help them… PB

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There are two very important women in my life and I’m so grateful to God for both of them.  One is my own Mom.  She did all the things that a mom should do and did it for me and my brother, she fed us when we were hungry, comforted us when we were sick and taught us so much of what is needed to know for this life.  Mom also did for me what I will always be grateful for: at age 17 I became a Christian because Mom witnessed to me and told me that Jesus was the answer for everything.  She was right, of course. 

The other woman is my wife Robin.  She is an amazing mom also, doing for our 6 kids what moms do, caring for them in every way.  I’m forever grateful that she has and is “there” for our boys and girls, ordering our house, teaching them what they need to know in life and pointing them to Jesus. 

I’m doubly blessed to have two wonderful women who have been such great human influences on my life and the lives of my children.  Mom, Robin, happy Mother’s Day.  Thank you Lord, you gave me just the right ones… PB

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We often wonder what the world is coming to.  You know, global warming, pollution in the air and nearly every waterway, the whole thing. You would think that man was in charge of his own destiny and can change the way the world works.  In some microcosms I believe that’s true.  But overall?  We’re not in charge here.  Read over Psalm 104 and tell me who’s in charge.  It’s not man.  Sure, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of what we can steward.  But according to Psalm 104 verse 5, it was “You who laid the foundations ofthe Earth, so that it should not be moved forever.”  Good stewards we may hope to be, but the Lord is the One in charge of His Earth.  Bow to His sovereignty and trust Him.  And thank Him.  Blessings, PB

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In life, but especially in the Bible sense, one’s name is representative of who you are.  Take your own name, for example.  Your reputation, your ability to function socially, financially and otherwise has a good deal to do with your name.  Think about someone that you know.  When you mention his or her name to a mutual acquaintance isn’t there a picture that comes to mind?  And don’t you attach a certain credibility to that picture?  In some way, that is the measure of authority that person has in life. 

The Name of Jesus, the Bible teaches, is “above all names” and that sits well with what other portions of the Bible have to say about His authority.  It says that “all” authority is His and “all” is under His feet.  So you and I must bow to that authority.  Forces of darkness must also bow.  And every other entity or situation you can think of, that also must “bow” before the Lord and obey. 

What does that mean for you?  It means that you need to present your life to Him, God “Most High.”  It also means that when you pray and use His Name that if you ask according to His will, whatever you ask is done.  Because His Name is Higher than any other.  But it especially means that we need to love Him the most.  Because if One so great, so above everything and everyone else bends to love you, it’s the greatest love you’ll ever receive.  Love Him with your life, your thoughts, your words and your deeds, love Him with all your heart.  Because His Name is above every other name.  PB

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I was just reading today about the end of the life of Moses.  Moses, as you know, was the leader God had appointed for the Israelites when they were in bondage to Egypt and then released by God’s power.  Moses was given great privileges in that he was allowed to relate to God “face to face.”  Imagine the interactions, imagine the awe of being so close to the Lord’s manifest Presence. 

I was floored by something I hadn’t really noticed until today, though.  It’s based on Deuteronomy 34.7.  It says that “Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died.  His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished.”  Wow.  In other words, Moses didn’t age or lose his strength or senses throughout all his years wandering in the wilderness and leading a rather stress filled “people situation.”  Could it be that his close relationship with the Lord, his daily face-to-face’s with God, put him so close to the source of Life that he didn’t age?  I think it was.

So what does that mean for us?  Living close to the Source of Life changes you.  He gives His vigor, His Life to those who seek Him regularly.  No, our faces may not literally shine with God’s glory as Moses’ did, but our countenance will be different, brighter, when we walk closely with God.  Because He is Life itself.  The door is open wide to us because of the Lord Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf.  Walk through it and stay close to Him and your heart will be forever young.  PB

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I’m away at a men’s retreat this weekend and we’ve spent the whole day considering what the Cross of Jesus actually did for us.  It’s a completely disarming thing to realize that He chose to die in this fashion, to actually die at all, and to do it for us.  How do you say “Thank You” for such a gift?  I believe you give your all for Him and to Him in response. 

But that’s only one thought. The amazing thing that’s on my heart right now is that God loves to heal.  He seems to love healing the condition of man, for one, changing every heart that trusts Him to forgive through His Son.  He came to heal the brokenhearted, as it says in Isaiah 61 and in Luke 4.  But He also heals bodies, physical bodies.  We had a time of prayer for those who had physical illnesses or injuries, just a couple of weeks ago.  One woman who has a degenerative problem in her hip joint (very painful) had the pain removed instantly as we all prayed. Wow.  Another man who had a bad burn on his hand and was in pain and in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, called out to the Lord and the same thing happened.  The terrible pain was gone.  More and more we’re realizing that He purchased our healing by His stripes on the Cross.  We can go to Him and ask on that basis. 

I guess He really is the Great Physician; especially when He heals what no earthly doctor can reach.  That would be the heart of man.  Go ahead, ask Him in the Name of Jesus.  PB

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