Wassawki Springs Campground, Scarborough, Maine
Blaine found us another nice campground. We have room to breathe, the people are all friendly, there’s bright sun and nice temperatures . . .
And jets.
And we’re right in the flight path for take-offs and landings from the Portland, Maine airport. And this morning, even though it’s Sunday, we were cursing those people who want to save money by taking red-eye flights.
Guess it’s good we were able to go to church today! 😊
Although for a moment in time, we didn’t think we would. Blaine found a church close to the campground that wasn’t Catholic. We got up, got ready and off we went. But when we arrived a couple of minutes later – the church was for sale! And no one was in the parking lot. But on their signboard, was an address, so we punched it in and set off following the gps. Until I mentioned that we’d be 15 minutes late for service. Blaine was upset, I was upset. I just can’t describe how disappointed we were!
And then, Blaine remembered that their website mentioned having two churches and they were close together. And then we realized that the address we entered was for the wrong town. I’ll not get into how that happened, suffice it to say that it was easily understandable given the various circumstances.
We turned around and made it – – – – one minute late.
It wasn’t a friendly church, but maybe that’s because we would have easily won the “best dressed couple” award. Their website said, “We don’t care what you wear”, and I guess this congregation takes that to heart because everyone was dressed very casually. Not that it matters to God, but I was always taught and still believe that when you go to church, you’re going there to worship and why would you present less than your best to the Father when you’re worshipping? I wore pants to church once because it was sub-zero temperatures. Once. I was so uncomfortable, I never did it again. Silly. But all that said, Blaine and I don’t really care what other people choose to do. It’s the heart attitude that matters. And it’s entirely possible that the reason they were so casually clad was because after the second service (we were at the first), they were staying for a corn roast. Maybe. But Blaine and I both had the feeling this congregation dresses the same way every week. 😊
So back to the “friendliness” factor. In a congregation of about 100 people, it couldn’t have been more obvious that we were visitors, and yet no one spoke to us, not even after church. The greeters at the door couldn’t have been less enthusiastic if they’d tried. Maybe it was because of the clothes, maybe it was because we were late, or maybe, just maybe, they don’t cotton to strangers in their midst.
Be that as it may, it didn’t dissuade us from having a Spirit-filled time of worship! Both in music and the Word! And that’s the real reason we were here this morning. We were shriveled up inside from lack of corporate worship! And when we sang “It Is Well With My Soul” at the end of the service, I wept, nearly sobbed in fact! And Blaine was touched as well! So wonderful!
Their pastor had just this week returned from a 12-week Sabbatical. For those of you who don’t know what that means, it’s supposed to be a time of Spiritual reflection and renewal for pastors. A time to focus on learning what God wants them to focus on for themselves, their families and their church family who’ve been entrusted to their care. We’ve never heard of a three month long one, but that’s what this congregation blessed their pastor with, and it was our understanding from listening to the pastor, that the pulpit was filled by members of the congregation in his absence, but with some instruction from him as to their focus. It seems, for the past 17 weeks, they’ve been doing a series on Hebrews Chapter 11. The “Heroes of the Faith” chapter, and those filling the pulpit based their messages on the list of the faithful that fills that chapter.
This morning, the Pastor wrapped that lesson up. And what a lesson it was!
Before I get into paraphrasing what we learned this morning, let me give you just a bit of background. Hebrews 11 begins with “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” (Ancients being Old Testament-time people. BC people. Before Christ people.)
And then the writer launches into a list of a few – Abel, Enoch (and without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him ~ vs 6), Noah, Abraham (All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised, they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. ~ vs 13a), Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses’ parents, Moses, the exiles from Egypt as they crossed the Red Sea, the people marching around Jericho, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets, Daniel (though not specifically by name), and a list of things endured by the martyred Old Testament faithful who “were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.”
That promise they were waiting for, was fulfilled in Jesus.
They weren’t commended (heroes if you will) because of their abilities, or their godly lives (they all had flaws, some of them pretty major in our eyes), but they were commended because of Whom they placed their faith in. They stepped out of their comfort zones and stepped into obedience. When God told Noah to build the Ark, he did it, despite the fact that it had never rained and everyone in the world at that time thought he was crazy.
We, on the other hand, tend to take calculated steps of faith, assessing the risks before we step out. Before we decide if we want to follow God’s leading or not. For example – “I feel led to give $20 to that worthy, godly cause, but if I do, then that cuts into my budget and I’ll have to give up my weekly stop for coffee for the next month.” Or “I feel like God wants me to talk to my neighbor/co-worker about my faith, but what if they mock me or tell others about me? What if they think I’m nuts?” Or “I know God is telling me to surrender my life – everything – to Him, but what if He asks me to do something I don’t want to do, like become a missionary or pastor, or downsize so I can give more to the poor?” Or “I know I should trust God with everything in my life, but when it comes down to it, I really don’t because I want to keep control over things myself, because what if He says ‘No.’?”
So how do we live by faith?
1. Know that we aren’t alone. There are a myriad of other believers out there with the same struggles. This is why it’s important to ‘not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another’ ~ Hebrews 10:25
2. Whenever we ‘face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance and perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’ ~ James 1:2, we ought to ask God what He’s trying to teach us through the trial.
3. We need to ‘throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles’ ~ Hebrews 12:1b. Sin separates us from God and hinders the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We need to remove the attitude of willful disobedience in whatever area it surfaces. “God doesn’t really care if I . . . .” “It’s no big deal. It’s not like I’m hurting anyone.” We need to remember that sin is sin is sin is sin. We are the ones who make priority lists, not God. For Him, lying, gossip and murder are all the same.
4. We are to ‘run with endurance/perseverance the race marked out for us.’ ~ Hebrews 12:1c. Running is an action step, and everyone knows you don’t begin by running in a 26-mile marathon. You have to practice and prepare. You start small and work your way up. Faith is often the same way. Speaking for myself, I can tell you that it’s become very easy for me to lay my life into God’s Hands (well, mostly anyway), but when it comes to laying the lives of my children in His Hands, it’s much more difficult. I fight for control and especially release of that control every time something comes up in their lives. Even though the first thing Blaine and I did when they were born was give them back to God. “We will do what we can, but ultimately they belong to You to do with as You will.” Even though God’s done a remarkable job with my sons for the past 30-some years. Blaine and I have learned to ask God for wisdom and guidance, for grace, for the faith we need, and we can’t think of a single time when God has let us down. Not even when He said ‘No.’ Not even the times when we thought we were doing what God wanted us to do and He eventually said ‘No.’ Not even when we couldn’t feel His presence during trials.
Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.”
What would it look like if you pursued Jesus with all your heart? Are you frustrated with your life and the things that cause you daily stress? Maybe it’s because you’re pursuing too many other things.
What do you seek with all your heart? Food? Spouse? Kids? Fun? Prestige? Acceptance among peers? Following perceived godly rules?
Or do you pursue a relationship with God? If you pursue that, then the rest will follow.
The Pastor ended with this thought – What will we say when we get to Heaven and Noah or Moses or Daniel come up to us very excited and ask, “What was it like to have the Holy Spirit living inside of you all the time? What was it like for you to give your life to Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Atonement for sin?”
How would we answer that? Will we be able to? Is our life different because we have Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit? Or does our life look like everyone else’s?
In the afternoon, we drove to historic downtown Portland and walked around. After finding a street to park on (because street parking is free on the weekends), we stopped by the Visitor Center first and Marvin was very helpful with a map and comments, and so we began our walk.
Originally built by an entrepanuer.
Merchants paid him $5/year to tell them when their ships were on their way into port.
We didn’t actually go in, but it’s one of the oldest cemeteries.
and none of them liked the cherrios someone threw on the ground.
Marvin had told us about the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow house and where it was located, so I wanted to cruise on by that. There was a fee to go inside, so we skipped that, but we walked around the outside. It seemed kinda funny to have his old house sitting in amongst the high rises. But nice that someone decided to preserve it. Shows how important he was to their history – and apparently ours as well.
I thought this was a good way to show you how it sits in the middle of all the high rises. : )
I was going to add some information about Mr. Longfellow, but decided to make it a separate “Special Edition” since I found so much and ended up with several pictures. So if you want to learn more, check it out.
Once we were done downtown, I had some shopping to do, so Blaine chauffeured me around to the stores I needed while he sat in the Jeep and listened to the Indians game on his phone app.
I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t able to find much of what I was searching for. The summer season is over up here. ☹
I’m quite certain I can make it until the next summer season rolls around – probably around January. 😊