-from the Pastor’s Heart “Right from the Heart”

If you attended the Sanctuary’s Annual Business Meeting, you heard me tell about my-first-ever Solitude Retreat during the 3rd week of January at YMCA of the Rockies. I had an isolated cabin all to myself, my coffee maker, my computer (no internet or phone service), and an 8” high stack of old files with lessons, sermons, handouts, and scribblings that were precious to me. I was surprised by what I found in the stack. (Picture Chevy Chase, in Christmas Vacation, alone in his attic, discovering his family’s box of Super-8 movie reels, and the expressions on his face while he watched them.)
 

As I read, sorted, annotated, and wondered what to do with all that stuff, I realized how much these had become foundational in my life. Most were given to me by authors, preachers, or ‘cassette tapes.’ 🙂  How I relate to you; The words I allow to come out of my mouth; How I handle expectations, offenses and confrontations, and a few more. I now recognize these as the values and behaviors that I’m prepared to fall-on-my-sword-for.
With that in mind, I want to take these Treasures of Wisdom & Knowledge and do my very best to anchor them in each of your souls in 2019. I felt the question in my heart that: “If my time was limited, if I could only impart just a few vital Spiritual Core Values into you, what would they be?” My answer was the teachings, truths, precepts, behaviors and responses that are creating the life I’m living today. Not that I live these perfectly—but they are making my life work. I give this godly knowledge and the wisdom arising from it credit for making my marriage work, making my relationships with you, and most of those who reject me, work.
I’ve never run-the-table in the Snooker Game of Life, but that doesn’t subtract from the veracity or efficacy of the wisdom and knowledge God has presented to me. It’s all true. It works every time I will submit to it. Perhaps you can do better. Wouldn’t that be great! Oh, wouldn’t that be great, indeed!

I will offer you only a handful of topics and they’ll all fall nicely under the umbrella of “Right from the Heart.”

(Don’t miss the double-entendre.)