Rev. Dan Polecheck - Universal Life Church Ministries - Older Blog Posts - I Pray For Patience And I Want It Now

Before I started this blog I was writing for a blog on the Family Worship Center - Algoma Campus website. This is a copy of one of those posts with links to the original blog.

I Pray For Patience And I Want It Now
Originally Posted May 22, 2020
Original Blog Post

“…so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.” (Colossians 1:10-11)

Do you consider yourself to be patient? Our daily lives require us to exercise patience, whether the issues we face are small or big. An unexpected expense, dealing with a difficult co-worker, experiencing conflict with a friend or getting sick are all situations that require us to be patient, and it is often easier said than done.

Unfortunately, we cannot control every aspect of our lives. The way others treat us and the situations we find ourselves in are sometimes simply beyond our control, and we have to find ways to cope with them.

So, how can we be patient in seemingly impossible circumstances?

Romans 12:12 says, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” In life, we will face trials. However, as believers, we can find hope in knowing that we have a loving God who is in control of our lives. When we put our trust in His perfect plan rather than our own, we do not need to feel anxious, worried or impatient.

In addition, we do not have to struggle to find patience within ourselves. In fact, when we call upon God, He can give us the strength to be patient. While we may not understand the waiting period we are in, we can rest in the fact that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him. Rather than trying to make things happen, we can let go of the reigns and give Him the power in our lives.

If you are in the midst of a season of waiting, remember that God’s plan is greater than anything we could imagine. As His children, He does not withhold good things from us. When we give our lives to Him and are faithful in prayer, He will work through us in incredible ways.

Rev. Dan Polecheck - Universal Life Church Ministries - Older Blog Posts - The Bewildered Birdie

Before I started this blog I was writing for a blog on the Family Worship Center - Algoma Campus website. This is a copy of one of those posts with links to the original blog.

The Bewildered Birdie
Originally Posted May 17, 2020
Original Blog Post

One morning as I climbed out of the shower I heard a wheezy kind of whistling noise. At first I thought it must be my wife snoring, but the longer I heard the evenly paced, high pitched sound, the more I was convinced it was coming from outside my bathroom window. So I grabbed my glasses and looked out the window and there on the corner of our storage shed roof was a robin.

When the red breasted bird opened his beak, I knew for sure that's where the sound was coming from. He looked like a young bird as I could see the speckles on his breast. After I listened to his lonely call a few times, I wondered if I could mimic it. His chirp was more like a whistle than a bird call. I couldn't resist, I finally gave a short single pitched whistle back to him. I knew it wasn't the right pitch, but it made him stop. He finally gave another whistle, so I changed my pitch just a bit and let out another short tweet. Sure enough, he stopped his chirping again and began to look around. After several tweets back and forth, and the poor bird looking all over trying to find me he flew to the tree in the backyard and I lost sight of him.

Later that day, I couldn't help but think about that little bird. I wondered if he was looking for his mother. There was one thing I was sure of: Had that bird been a mature bird rather than a young one, he wouldn't have given my whistles the time of day. I wasn't truly close enough to his pitch, and a full grown robin has more of a "song" in their call. He obviously wasn't old enough yet to be familiar with the true tweets from his kind. I recalled John 10:1-6: " . . . the sheep follow Him because they know His voice . . . they will never follow a stranger . . . because they don't recognize a stranger's voice."

I thought about how often as a baby Christian I felt like that little bird. Sometimes I was so eager to hear Christ, I mistake other thoughts and feelings for His voice. I was anxious to find Jesus. Sometimes I wanted protection, other times I was simply looking for advice or encouragement. No matter what it is that caused me to seek my Savior, I’d discovered that the more I got to know Him, the more often I wait until I was sure the voice I heard was truly Him, the better my life became.

Perhaps, like me, you've answered the phone and had someone begin talking without identifying himself. On those occasions, I would find myself paying more attention to the sound of my friend's voice than the actual conversation. Generally before we're on the phone too long, his timber, tone or something he said would give me the clue I need to correctly identify the caller. But this only works with a friend, someone I knew well and have talked to a lot.

And as you may have guessed (or already have discovered in your own life), the same is true for Jesus' voice. Until we've talked with our Savior and listened for His response on a regular basis, we won't recognize Him when He calls you, and much like my little bird friend, you'll be easily fooled when a stranger tries to imitate the Holy One.

As Christians it's vital that you get to know our Savior's voice. You need to do be a 1 Thessalonians 5:17 person, praying continually and listening carefully to His voice. Reading scripture is equally important so that you can become more and more accustomed to the things Jesus might say. It may take some time, you may miss His voice from time to time, like my new robin friend. However, the more you grow, the more you listen, the closer you get to Christ, the more you'll be ready to recognize His voice and the better you'll be able to fly free!

Rev. Dan Polecheck - Universal Life Church Ministries - Older Blog Posts - God Wants You To Rest More

Before I started this blog I was writing for a blog on the Family Worship Center - Algoma Campus website. This is a copy of one of those posts with links to the original blog.

God Wants You To Rest More
Originally Posted May 11, 2020
Original Blog Post

"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them." Romans 8:28

I love the part that says “God causes everything to work together for the good.” I would like to explain what this verse means to me and how we can make use of it to bring us closer to God.

Let's begin with the term “everything” in the above verse. It covers all the events and situations that are in our lives, both good and bad. If you look back in your life, I am sure you will find good and bad things happened in the past. God has promised us that He will cause all of them, both good and bad to work together our good.

This is a great encouragement for those of us who are troubled by mistakes we made in the past. You could be troubled today because of something you did years ago. You made wrong choices that led to terrible consequences. The damage was done. Right now, you wished you could go back to the past and unmake those decisions but you know you can never do that. God is telling you to let go of that guilt and trust in Him. He is giving you a promise that He will turn this bad experience of yours into something good. This is the nature of our God.

Notice that the above verse does not name God as the one who caused the bad experiences to happen. God is the person who made bad things into good. He did not cause the bad things to happen in the first place. He will not push you into the water and then throw you a float to save you in order to show you how much He loves you. That may some people’s version of God, not the Bible’s.

I remember some time ago I was hospitalized because of congestive heart failure. After several rough days in the hospital, a couple of people said, “Maybe God wants you to rest more.”

What do you think they meant by that? It seemed to them that God could be the one who gave me the disease because He wanted me to rest more. What do you think of this? Do you think God loves you so much that He wants you to have good rest and He will do everything it takes to make you rest even to the extent of giving you some disease? In my view, I don't think so. God is not the kind of a god who causes bad things to happen to us in order to give Himself the opportunity to play hero. God was not the one who caused the troubles I faced. He is my savior. He cannot be my deliverer and oppressor at the same time. You have to make up your mind on whether God is your deliverer or your oppressor. As for me, I choose to believe in what the Bible says. God causes everything to work together for my good. I caused the problem myself by not taking better care of the temple that He gave me.

The last part of the verse tells us the conditions to have God cause everything to work together for our good. This privilege is for those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. The first condition is we must love God. The question is how to love God?

The only way we can love God is for us to find out how much He loves us. Read the Bible. Read how Jesus treated his people. See for yourself how kind and loving He is. There is nothing He wished more than for you to prosper and be in good physical and spiritual health as your soul prospers. Not only that, Jesus was willing to die for our sins. At the Cross, He took on all our sins for us to live in righteousness. He took all our diseases for us to live in health. He died poor for us to live rich. The more you are aware on how much He loves you, you can’t help loving him.

The second condition is we are called according to His purpose. This is not our call but His. So, God has fulfilled this condition for us and for us to fulfill our part we must totally surrender ourselves to Him and be obedient to His Word.

Father God, I thank You for loving me as only You can,. I ask for the strength, the courage, and the discernment to understand the Scriptures. I want to turn my life over to You completely. I want to be obedient. I want to love You with all my heart and soul. I ask you to help me become the person that You created me to be. I ask for all these things in the precious name of Your Son Jesus Christ. Amen