The View From My Window Pastor's Weekly Blog

If you are a history buff, you know why history itself is divided into two parts: 1) what happened before Jesus came & 2) what has happened since. The birth, life, death & resurrection of Jesus Christ has had an undeniable, life-altering effect on this planet. It is rightly said that God gave Jesus to the world.

However, today’s faith fact is: God gave Jesus to me. It’s very important that you make that leap from recognizing the greatness of Jesus in a general sense to receiving Him as a personal gift to you. Welcome Jesus into your life. Talk to Him daily, if not continually. Study God’s word as if it were written just to you. Take the commands, promises and encouragements personally. Be “Born Again”, become a child of God and follower of Jesus Christ. After all, part of the reason He came to earth was to save your soul and adopt you into His Family.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

Every time I go to the airport, I stand in awe of the reality that those huge airliners can actually fly through the air. Empty, a 747 weighs 201.5 tons; fully loaded, up to 437.5 tons. I know what the eggheads tell us about wing shape, lift & thrust but I’m not sure they really know what they’re talking about. 201.5 tons of steel carrying 236 tons of cargo, passengers & snacks screams down the runway then jumps up into the sky. If it can fly, why can’t I (I mean without an airplane)?

I have a lot more faith in God than I do Boeing. Yet, I’ve strapped myself into a seat on several of those behemoths & trusted that it was going to catapult me across the country. Isn’t it time we really strap ourselves into following the Lord? What are you waiting for? Obey what He says about finances, how to treat your enemies, what to value, how to use your mind…

-Pastor Joel Everhart

A few years ago I wrote a story about how I thought Stinky Levi would have experienced that first Passion Week. I read the story to the congregation & got some very good feedback on how it brought a very personal touch to the Easter account. This being the last Easter I’ll be here as your pastor, I thought it fitting to read this story once again. I hope the memory of Stinky Levi, Leah, David & Benjamin (I almost forgot to mention the donkey – I wonder what he’d have to say about that!) & their adventures will stick with you for a very long time. Happy Easter my dear friends!

-Pastor Joel Everhart

With election time drawing near we are reminded of the disparity between how people in our cities vote as opposed to those of us who live in more rural areas. How often we’ve seen entire states lit up in red except for a few little squares in blue that represent how the people in metropolitan areas voted. Sure enough, all the electoral votes in the state go to the party in blue!

Apparently, even in Jesus’ day there was a difference between city people and country folk. In Matthew 21:10-11 the people from Jerusalem asked who Jesus was and the crowd from all the rural areas was able to answer their question. Clueless city people!

-Pastor Joel Everhart

The story of Esther is so iconic because we find a young lady elevated to a wonderful position only to find out it put her in the crosshairs of a very volatile situation. How true to life! You got married to live happily ever after only to find out marriage brought along a number of challenges you never anticipated. The day your child was born was one of the happiest days of your life. Lately, your child has been on a rebellion kick. The job of your dreams has turned into a nightmare…

The good news is that this is not how your story ends. This is just the prelude to a wonderful deliverance. God’s not done writing your story. If Esther hadn’t faced such a terrible threat we’d never have heard of her. As it is, her life still speaks thousands of years after she finished her journey. Esther inspires us to keep our faith glowing even when it gets dark all around us. Disaster turned into deliverance because she put her faith in the Lord. Trust God with your marriage, children, job, health, finances…

-Pastor Joel Everhart

When I first started playing racquetball at the Y there was a fellow who only played on

Saturdays. He often talked about coming in during the week at 4:30 a.m. to play but never did. I could tell he liked playing against me because he always won. That trend continued for about a year. After that we became quite competitive. Once I had the upper hand he quit coming. I found it interesting how his personality changed as our skill levels crossed paths. He was much friendlier as a winner.

Maybe you’ve had the experience of getting along wonderfully with your coworkers until you got a promotion. Suddenly, you’re not one of the guys (or gals) anymore. Position changes people. That’s the case in today’s text. Daniel was a good, godly man but his success turned former friends into rivals who went to great lengths to have him eliminated. Fortunately, Daniel had Friends in high places. He secured their protection through prayer. God listens when we pray.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

There are two extremes that are dangerous when it comes to thinking about the love of God. The first is to deny that God loves me. This thought may be the result of inexplicably harsh circumstances (if God loves me why is this happening?) or a realistic understanding of the gap between who God is (righteous, holy, powerful) & who we are (sinful, dark, hard on ourselves & judgmental). These two extremes fail to take God at His Word and recognize all that He has done for us.

The second extreme is to think that God loves us special as opposed to others in this world. God loves me but hates those I don’t like or who do not behave or believe like I do. There is no superior or inferior race. Even if a person is violating every law of God, He still loves them and works at reconciling them to Himself. Hopefully they will respond positively to His advances lest they pay for their sins in the lake of fire!

Until death or Judgment Day arrives, the Lord is ever working to save the souls of the ignorant and sinful. Like God, we can hate their sin but we need to love them enough to seek them out and show them the love of God.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

For whatever reason, I forgot to print off this week’s sermon after I wrote it. Last week, I left my notebook full of sermons at home and had to print off a copy of the message I thought I was supposed to preach last Sunday so I could review it during the week. By mistake I printed off this week’s message and reviewed it. Fortunately, I discovered my mistake once I had my notebook in hand. That’s when I saw that I had printed out the wrong sermon and had next week’s in line for this week.

Through a series of mistakes I discovered another mistake before it got my preaching schedule out of whack with the Bible Engagement Project calendar. Isn’t God good? I could never have orchestrated a series of mistakes to catch a mistake before it’s hatched. What a Friend we have in Jesus! This experience proves today’s title: “God Cares About Me & You Too”.

Many of you credit me with being a good pastor, if only you knew the truth! If it wasn’t for God watching my every step, we’d all be in a heap of trouble.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

God was good to Israel. God treated her special. For a while Israel responded with an appropriate love and obedience to the Lord. Then, for a while, she decided to serve false gods, sacrifice children, indulge in immorality, and cheat one another. The results, as you can imagine, were disastrous. Even without the Lord punishing them, the resulting lifestyle was painful enough. They went from a happy, prosperous nation where everyone felt safe to an economically depressed, superstitious society where no one trusted anyone else.

In a rare move, the Lord decided to take matters into His own hands and eliminate the false competition by setting up the extermination of the prophets of Baal & Asherah. I pray God will put on His exterminator hat once again and clean up our society! Otherwise, the moths and rodents of sin will continue to chew away at the fabric of our safety and security.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

God has given us a blank check when it comes to wisdom. Ever not know what to do? Here’s what to do whenever you don’t know what to do: ask God what you should do. James promises us that if we ever lack wisdom we should ask God because He loves to answer that prayer.

God is not limited to spiritual questions. He knows science, psychology, finances, plumbing, auto repair, roofing, how to raise children… Even if you think you know exactly what to do, go ahead and ask for His input anyway. It could be you’ll learn a whole new way of doing whatever it is you need to do, and better. Stop being the person who forgets to pray before doing whatever and make seeking God’s advice a habit.

-Pastor Joel Everhart

Take note in today’s text that David not only defeated Goliath physically on the battlefield, he out-spoke the giant as well! Goliath promised to feed David’s body to the birds, David countered with a pledge to feed the entire Philistine army to the birds of the air and beasts of the forest.

David wasn’t just giant hunting that day. He was out to rout an army! Perhaps there’s a bigger prize than just getting past your next obstacle. Maybe God has something more in mind. Battles come because there are spoils to be won. Rather than just hoping to survive this next week ask God to clue you in to the end game, the bigger prize, the real reason for the struggle. Some wars are won in a single battle, others take a series of skirmishes. Don’t lose heart, trust that every obstacle is amassing plunder that sooner or later will not only fell the giant but rout the enemy’s army.

-Pastor Joel Everhart