JEFFREY SWAINSTON, CHAPLAIN
P.O. Box 77
Manton, MI 49663​
(616) 405-6921
revjeff82@gmail.com

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER​ 2024 GRANGE NEWS

Dead Batteries
Dr. Terry Powell landed at the airport past midnight, exhausted from an overseas trip and still facing a long drive home. Finding his Buick in the parking lot, he turned the key and nothing happened. The battery was
dead, which was how Powell halfway felt too. Thankfully, an airport service vehicle pulled alongside. The driver connected his working battery to Dr. Powell's weak one with jumper cables. The cables served as a conduit, carrying energy from one battery to the other, and the car started.

​​"Using jumper cables... is an apt analogy for the ministry of encouragement," Powell wrote in his book Serve Strong. "Life in a fallen world occasionally drains everyone's batteries. Illness, relational strife, unemployment, or susceptibility to temptation depletes resolve and joy...unless someone replenishes our batteries, we won't make much progress."
​
Jonathan pulled alongside David in the wilderness and jumpstarted his spiritual batteries. Perhaps today you will have an opportunity of finding someone needing a word of encouragement whom you can strengthen in the Lord.
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Then Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God. ~1 Samuel 23:16~
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024​ GRANGE NEWS

Remember to Sabbath

Do we really think our all-powerful, all-knowing God needed to rest after just six days of work? Possibly, but it seems more likely that God chose to rest to show us the importance of resting from our labors. He knew that we would need an example to follow, and that lesson is just as important today as it was all those years ago.
 
Our culture places a lot of emphasis on working hard, earning your place, and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, but a close reading of the Bible reveals a very different message.
 
You can’t earn your place in heaven through good works. And God certainly doesn’t determine your value by your use of your bootstraps — quite the opposite.
 
After all, the Bible isn’t full of stories of independent go-getters who won accolades all on their own by working around the clock. No, the stories are of people who leaned on God to achieve great things by saying yes to Him and following His path, which includes good work, but also always includes rest.
 
The Sabbath was the first day specifically set aside for something established by God. More holy days and holidays and feasts would come later, but the Sabbath has been with us since creation. It is one of God’s first gifts to us, a sacred time to give our bodies and minds a chance to recharge and anchor our weeks in rest and communion with Him. Resting regularly isn’t being lazy and doesn’t mean that we are shirking our responsibilities. It is simply accepting God’s generous gift. Building our lives around weekly rest is the first step in accepting the rhythm of life God laid out for us at the beginning, and it only brings us closer to Him.

And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.                                                                                                                                   ~Genesis 2:2~

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