Smile, You'll Feel Better

by Andrew Cromwell

It is amazing how our outside affects our inside. I’m not talking about what is going on around you, but instead what you are doing with your face. Too many people walk around with a sour expression, looking as if they like to suck on lemons for fun.

All of us know that there is a correlation between facial expression and what is going on inside. If someone is sad, depressed or just generally having a bad day, then nine times out of ten their face will show it. If they are feeling happy, then their face is bright, their eyes light up and when they smile they look like they have more teeth than the average person. We take this for granted -- what is inside is generally reflected on the outside.

What we forget is that sometimes, the best way to get out of feeling sad, is to make our face do the opposite of what we are feeling. Instead of walking around with a long face, you decide to put a smile on. Of course it helps immensely if you also stop focusing on the negatives and instead focus on the positives.

I did this just the other day when I was feeling glum. I realized that I had been pretty much focusing on all the reasons why I was justified to feel sad and sorry for myself. My face was expressionless at best and pouty at worst. The more I brooded the worse I felt and the nastier my face got.

Then I asked myself what good this was doing. It wasn’t going to change anything and it certainly wasn’t winning me any points with my family. So I gave myself a little talkin’ to and decided to stop focusing on all the reasons why I was justified to feel bad, and instead start focusing on what I could do to change my situation. I started with putting a smile on.

At first, my smile was forced and looked more like a snarl, but I kept trying. I even did my best to make my eyes sparkle! Suddenly, I found that it was easier to think good thoughts and my smile was less forced. And as I thought more good thoughts, I smiled more and before I knew it, my smile was not forced at all and my heart was happy.

Studies show that when you smile -- even if you’re faking it, the muscles that your smile is connected to begin to release endorphins into your bloodstream which makes you feel better. So this is not just a nice thought, it’s good science. Oh, and it’s spiritual too. The Bible says, “A merry heart does good like a medicine.” It’s almost as if God knows what He’s talking about!

The pastors in Kings County would love to help you discover how to bring the joy back into your life. Why don’t you give them a chance this weekend?

Are You Rich?

by Tim Howard

Grandchildren are great! My 6-year-old grandson recently asked: “Poppy… are we rich.” I responded by asking him what he meant when he used the word ‘rich’? He then replied: “ you know… do we have enough money to buy me a toy today?” On the basis of that question, I have to admit I am rich. Even though we didn’t purchase a toy that day, I could afford to do so. 

When we think of those who are rich, we too often think of the ones who have large sums of money and an overload of possessions. Assets, 401K’s, investments and a great cash flow may be a part of the wealth equation but surely not everything. 

Revelation 3:17 “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” From God’s vantage point: riches extend far beyond the material and temporal realm.

A distraught wife sought out a Christian marriage counselor and told her sad story of a marriage about to dissolve. “But we have so much!” she kept saying. “Look at this diamond ring on my finger. Why, it’s worth thousands! We have an expensive, beautiful house in an exclusive area and even one on the coast. Why, we have everything money can buy!” We are rich…

The counselor replied, “It’s good to have the things money can buy provided you don’t lose the things money can’t buy. What good is an expensive house if there’s no home? What good is an expensive ring if there’s no love?”

Jesus put it this way: Matt. 16:26… what good will it be for a person if he or she gains the whole world, yet forfeits his or her soul?

 Paul the apostle in Ephesians Chapter 1 lists several blessings that belong to those who follow Jesus Christ and are a part of his family. He refers to them as ‘spiritual blessings - not monetary assets.’ 

You are rich because God chose you. Verse 4. You aren’t an afterthought, unwanted or unplanned.  You are loved, desired and specifically chosen by God.

You are rich because you have a God-ordained purpose. Verse 5. You don’t have to merely exist, scrape by or survive but you can live fully and thrive!

You are rich because God values you enough to make an investment by redeeming you. Verse 7a. There is no need to struggle with a sense of worthlessness because he valued you by giving his life.

You are rich because God has forgiven you. Verse 7b. In Him we have … the forgiveness of our trespasses... Guilt, shame and condemnation lose their power in the life of one who is forgiven.

I personally wasn’t born into a wealthy family according to our culture’s standards. When my parents passed on, the monetary value of there possessions were so small, each child received less than $1,000.00. While the inheritance was minuscule in a temporal sense, the legacy was large. 

My parents taught me about God! I have lived life knowing I am chosen, I am valuable, I am free, I am here for a purpose, I’m not alone and I am forgiven. Those are treasures you can’t buy! Maybe we need to rethink our definition of ‘riches’. Are You Rich?

You may have enough money to buy a grandchild a toy, but you may not be wealthy. I’m not wealthy but I am rich. So are you if you know Jesus!

Stupid Stuff

by Andrew Cromwell

Everyone does stupid stuff. It’s just a part of life. Have you done any of these things lately?

• • Brush your teeth before eating.
• • Search frantically for the glasses that are on your face.
• • Wave your hands around wildly to explain something while you are on the phone.
• • Press the buttons harder on the remote control when you know it’s just weak batteries.

And even if you have never done any of these things, there is little doubt you could come up with a list of your own stupidities. When it comes down to it, no one is exempt.

The problem with the above list is that it lists more “silly stuff” than truly “stupid stuff.” If you happen to brush your teeth before dinner or make a fool of yourself looking for glasses that are already glued to your nose, you’ve done nothing more then look a little foolish. Give it a few hours or days and you’ll be able to laugh at yourself along with everyone else.

But there is another list of things we do that is not quite so funny and harmless and silly. These things end up damaging our life and relationships. Things like:

• • Continuing to lose your temper and saying and doing destructive things.
• • Lying to the ones you love the most.
• • Drinking too much and losing control.
• • Chasing after things that only end up hurting you when you get them.

We all do our own version of this type of “stupid stuff” too. Just when things are going right, we go and do the very thing that we told ourselves we would never do again, and we mess it all up. We are often our own worst enemy.

So how do you stop?

First, admit that what you are doing is stupid. Too many times, we hold onto our pride or anger or bitterness or whatever, just because we don’t want to admit that our behavior is actually destructive.

Second, be willing to work. A lot of people are not ready to change. They know their bad behavior is destructive but they don’t really want to do anything about it. They might say they want things to be different, but they really don’t.

Third, reach out for help. The first two steps won’t do anything until you do the third one. Getting help involves doing something different. It is not until we reach out beyond ourselves that we can truly see change happen.

No matter who you are or what you have done, there is a person who you can always reach out to—Father God.  If you are ready to stop doing the stupid, then maybe it’s time to get help from the One who knows you inside and out.  

The churches in Kings County would love to help you and your family find out how great life really can be when we reach out for help from Him!

What's Your Perspective?

by Tim Howard

Have you ever witnessed something with several other people present and when asked about the event, everyone shared a different perspective? It’s amazing to me how several people can experience the same thing and yet have several unique interpretations. How two children can be brought up in the same household with the same parents at the same time and develop such different philosophies of life is very intriguing.

There was a time in history when a man named Moses sent 12 of his military personal out on a reconnaissance mission. It’s recorded in the book of Numbers Chapter 13. They were given these instructions: “Go through the desert and into the hill country. See what the land is like and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls or are they unprotected?

The purpose of this exploration was to help the Israelites develop a strategy for acquiring that territory since God had given it to them as their inheritance. Here’s the report they gave to Moses.

“We arrived in the land you sent us to see, and it is a magnificent country but the people living there are powerful, and their cities and towns are fortified. We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are! We even saw giants. We felt like grasshoppers next to them, and that’s what we looked like to them!” But Caleb tried to encourage the people along with Joshua as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” 

Twelve different people and two very different perspectives! Ten saw things in a very negative way and only Joshua and Caleb saw things in a positive light.

In my early years of life and even into my mid thirties, I was an extremely negative person. If someone came up with an idea or a suggestion, I could give 10 reasons why it wouldn’t work. I was so good at being negative; I thought I had a special gift! My philosophy was simple: expect the worst and you won’t be disappointed. This philosophy seems to guarantee a certain level of stability but it also keeps you from experiencing a whole lot of joy.

A pessimist has a tendency to see the worst rather than the best and this is witnessed by the way they talk. Everything is negative!

If you have a negative perspective, you may need to change your position. When standing on the ground, things can look overwhelming and intimidating but when you get into a plane and fly a few thousand feet above land things look a lot smaller. You gain a new perspective by simply changing your position. 

If you know God, Ephesians 2:6 says: “you are positioned in the heavenly realm with him.” High above all things!  In other words, you can see with God’s eyes. He has a greater vantage point and a much broader view. The Israelites would have done better had they put their faith in God and viewed things through his eyes rather than their own. 

When you try to see God through the myriad of problems you encounter rather than seeing your problems through God’s eyes your perspective becomes skewed. If you tend to see things in a negative light, it might be time to put your faith in God and get some new ‘spiritual glasses.’ It will be amazing how your perspective will change. 

Keep On Keeping On

by Andrew Cromwell

We’ve all seen the cartoonish depiction of the frog who is choking the neck of the stork even while he is being swallowed whole. The caption reads “Never Give Up.” There is something about that image that speaks to us because we frequently need to be reminded to keep fighting and never quit.

Life is difficult. I’m not saying that it doesn’t have its wonderful moments, but because we live in a fallen world, death, disappointment and disease are part of our reality. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way we think they should. Sometimes that job doesn’t work out. Sometimes people let us down (or we let them down). And sometimes tragedy strikes.

But have you noticed that there are some people who just keep floating to the top? Life might throw them in the drink again and again, yet they find a way to float back up and start again. I believe it is these people, more often than not, that in the end are the winners in life. They have learned the secret of not giving up. If life deals them a bad hand, they take the blow, shake it off and get up and move on again.

Too many people quit too early. They get discouraged—and we all understand why—because the wait is too long or the pain too intense or the cost is too high. But when you quit you take yourself out of the race and only the ones who stay in win the medals.

There is an interesting passage in the book of Ephesians where the Apostle Paul talks about the battle of life. He says, “and when you have done all else, stand.” Listen, sometimes you have done all the work, you have paid all the bills, you have talked to the right people and you have put in the time—but you are still not seeing the victory. That is not the moment to give up, that is the moment to stand. Don’t sit down and don’t turn your back or walk away. Keep on keeping on.

What is it that you are tempted to give up on right now in your life? The dream of your college degree? The beauty of a love-filled marriage? The joy of a significant relationship with your kids? Success at your work? Don’t give up just yet! Keep pressing, keep trying, keep working—victory is around the corner!

The best news is that Father God wants to see you find victory as well, and the greatest joy is discovering that true success can only be found through and in Him. The pastors of Kings County would love to encourage you and your family to keep on keeping on this weekend. Why don’t you visit one of the many wonderful churches in our community....don’t give up just yet!

In Due Season

by Tim Howard

I was brought up in Maine, a state that offers four distinct seasons. While talking with a person who visited this state recently for the first time, I was told he was thinking about relocating to Bar Harbor, Maine. My council to him was simple. Don’t make any decisions until you have experienced all the seasons. Each one is totally different than the ones we experience here in Hanford.

I have my favorite season and possibly you do as well. God, however, is the creator of every season and there’s something positive about each one.  Maybe he gave four seasons for our pleasure or possibly to afford us some variety. But one thing is sure, He uses each season of our lives to develop character and make us more like him.  

“But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be people who are perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.” —JAMES 1:4 

James encourages us to patiently walk through every season of life. Don’t be in a hurry to move on. Enjoy and even endure if necessary where you are currently planted because God is at work in you! When you are working on something - That something is working on you!

Things happen in “Due Season.” Note, It’s God’s season, not ours. We are in a hurry; God isn’t. He takes time to do things right—He lays a solid foundation before He attempts to build a building and we are God’s building under construction. He is the Master Builder, and He knows what He is doing. We may not know what’s happening, but He does, and that will have to be good enough. 

Some seasons are more difficult than others but all seasons are significant and play an important role in our overall development. Paul tells us: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time (in due season) we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9 

In order to bring forth fruit you will need to plant, cultivate, water and work. Some blood, sweat and tears will be required. These seasons are not necessarily fun or as glamorous as the fruit-bearing season but without them, there will be NO fruit. 

David gives a promise to those who put God first and choose to follow him closely in every season of their lives. “They will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit ‘in season’ and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he or she does prospers.” Psalms 1:3

What season of life are you in right now? Is it a season of new beginnings? Exhausting labor? Great difficulty? Tremendous fruitfulness? Abundant Joy? Whatever season of life defines your current situation, one fact remains true. A new season is on the horizon!

Learn to relax in the current season. Even as you change from sweaters to short sleeve shirts for the summer heat, adjust your thinking to enjoy your present circumstances. 

Rather than asking God to deliver you ‘from’ the season, ask him to deliver ‘to’ you the necessary tools to make this season fruitful. If you do, you will Bloom Where You Are Planted. 

Lay It On The Line

by Andrew Cromwell

It seems a strange paradox to humans that when we seek to be happy, we rarely find happiness, but when we seek to bring happiness to others, we find it ourselves. Life is full of such upside-down realities. A well-known author said, “When I was young I used to try and be an interesting person, then someone told me to stop trying so hard and just start being interested in others.”

The thread common to both being happy and being interesting is the focus on others. Albert Einstein said, “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” There is something about getting outside of the continual focus we have on ourselves that makes us bigger and better people. When we begin to ask what we can add to the world rather then ask the world what it can add to us, then we begin to enlarge the very quality of our souls.

Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends.” If we desire to live a life that is great, if we want to have our life mean something, then we must stop living for ourselves. We must start to live and think differently.

When everyone else is trying to figure out how they can get a raise so they can get a bigger house, car, boat or RV, we need to be thinking about how we can get a raise so we can make a difference in the lives of kids who are hungry and need an education. When everyone else is thinking about how to make themselves look better, we need to be thinking about what we can do to make someone else look better. And when everyone is busy complaining about how bad things are, we need to be rolling up our sleeves and doing something about it.

People who are willing to lay it on the line are people who are willing to be smaller so someone else can be bigger. We spend a lot of time talking about the generation that went to war in the 40’s—we call them “the Greatest Generation”. We talk about them because they sacrificed for others.

The challenge to all of us is that greatness costs. Greatness costs your comfort. Greatness messes up your schedule. Greatness requires blood, sweat and tears. Great parents are willing to put their kids first. Great employees are willing to put their co-workers first. Great friends are willing to put their friend first.

All the world seems to be saying “me first.” But the great ones say, “you first.” What do you say?

The pastors in Kings County would love to help you know more about the one individual who redefined greatness by willingly choosing to die for you and me. Perhaps the road to your own greatness begins with Him?