Vince Deagler

hi out there.  i’m back again.  i have to get used to this blogging thing.  i have had really good intentions to catch you all up with what i’m thinking, and then before i know it the days gone and i haven’t written a word.  i will try to do better.  really.

anyway, here’s what i have been chewing on.  we just started a series through the book of ephesians in our sunday morning services.  (remember i’m a pastor at the prescott ev. free church in modesto, ca)  for those of you who aren’t that familiar with the bible, ephesians is actually a letter written from the apostle paul to a church in the city of ephasus.  as he writes he is in prison in rome and hadn’t been with the ephesian believers for about 5 years.  (his crime was basically being guilty of being a follower of jesus).  heres what i find absolutely amazing.  if i had been locked up as paul was.  if i had endured the same kind of circumstance paul had endured.  i think i would be pretty bitter by this point.  but when paul sits down to write this letter, his first inclination is to burst out in praise to god.  read it for yourself.  that just blows me away.  i know myself, i know how easily i can get angry, frustrated, impatient.  i know i don’t react well to injustice, real or imagined.  in this case it was real, very real, life threatening real.  yet here’s paul bursting out with “praise be to god…”.  i find that truely amazing.  so then i start thinking, how can i be like that.  how can i get there.  (i don’t really like how easily i can get angry, frustrated, impatient, etc)  i’m constantly looking for help in these areas.  so here’s what i’m thinking.  i’m not looking for a 1-2-3 approach.  i’m not looking for a count to 10, take a deep breath, here’s the latest trick, fad, or gimmick.  that whole count to ten deal makes me think of a count down to blast off.  i don’t need that kind of influence, i can blast off with the best of them.  no, i don’t think the answer is in my ability to follow the steps or do the tricks properly.  what i see in paul was someone who was really close to god and understood what he had in christ.  he was deeply aware that his relationship with god was not in anyway effected by his present circumstances.  so even in prison, he could cry out “praise be to god”.  so i’m working at getting closer to god.  kinda like marriage.  if your married do you remember your vows.  for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health.  because of satans activity (we’ll have to focus on that some day) you can pretty well count on some worse, some poorer, some sickness.  but what i have found in my wife is a companion who shares that with me, making the burden lighter.  what i am more and more finding in god is a companion with whom i can share my day - whether good or bad - and in that sharing, companionship, closeness, my problems don’t quite seem to be as bad.  don’t get me wrong, they are still there, always will be as long as i live on this planet.  but with god and his companionship they don’t dominate my life.  i have found my attitude, thoughts, values, reactions, everything is different by simply getting and staying close to him.  i know this sounds simplistic, but many of you out there know exactly what i’m talking about because you have shared that same experience.  for the rest of you, i hope there will come a day in your near future where you will find that out for yourself.  because when you do, you’ll find its pretty amazing stuff.  blessings.  see ya soon.  vince