Category: Devotional Thought

Jennifer sat at her desk in her bedroom trying to put together the 100-piece puzzle she got for her birthday. As she put each piece in place, she started to see the picture on the cover of the box taking shape. Finally, she got to the end. But — oh no! A piece of the puzzle was missing.

Jennifer looked all over her room for the missing piece, but she couldn’t find it. She walked away from her desk sad and unsatisfied. The puzzle just wasn’t complete without that last piece.

Have you ever stepped back to take a look at the “picture” of your life? Maybe you said to yourself, “There is something missing in my life. I feel like the picture of my life is incomplete.” You thought you had everything in place, but there was just something missing. Perhaps it was that newborn baby you hoped you would have someday. Perhaps it was that vacation to the Bahamas you always wanted. Perhaps it was that new car or dream home. After you had those things, you still felt unsatisfied. You still felt something was missing.

There is a “God-shaped hole” in every person’s life. If we try to fill that hole with anything but God himself, we will be forever unsatisfied. Our life will be incomplete. It is like putting together a puzzle with one piece missing.

That’s why God sent his Son to this earth. Jesus is the missing piece of the puzzle.

Jesus brings us a full and satisfying life right now, as well as eternal life in heaven when we die. He accomplished this by dying on a cross to pay for the sins of the world and rising from the dead on Easter morning. Those two events prove that Jesus really is God himself, the piece of the puzzle that is missing.

There is no need to keep on looking for what is missing in your life. It is Jesus. Believe in him. Get to know him better.

Trust in Jesus. Then you will have the most important piece of the puzzle in your life, and your life will be complete — full of joy, hope, and peace.

Pastor R.

Grandmother Jones loved to work on elaborate puzzles. On Saturdays she invited her grandchildren over to help finish these masterpieces.

How fulfilling would a puzzle be if it had only one piece? If a puzzle box said, “Number of Pieces: 1,” that would be ridiculous. You can’t have a puzzle with only one interlocking piece!

God’s creation, like a puzzle, has many pieces. God created each one of us as a unique interlocking piece. After he created the first piece, a man named Adam, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18). So he created another piece, giving Adam a woman to love and be with.

God felt it was important that we not be left by ourselves. We are incomplete without others.

Grandmother Jones stressed in her Saturday puzzle time with her grandchildren that they be careful with an incomplete puzzle. A puzzle’s strength comes only when all the interlocking pieces have been connected.

When we are “interlocked” with friends and loved ones, we are stronger. That is the way God intended it from the very beginning.

Grandmother Jones also reminded her grandchildren to work on puzzles on a stable surface and in a comfortable environment.

The same holds true in our life. God saw a need for a good place where we could interlock with the appropriate people who could make our lives complete. So he created the church. The church is a place filled with people who recognize the importance of each interlocking piece — that’s you!

God says of those who trust in Jesus as their Savior, “You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you, too, are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).

God has made you a part of his “puzzle.” He wants your friends connected too. Don’t let them be left out of his masterpiece.

Pastor R.

A puzzle enthusiast became frustrated when she discovered one of the corner pieces was missing. To top it off, the puzzle was brand new and was a gift from her husband.

Now, one piece of a puzzle is not all that important. Besides, the missing piece was in a corner and was only some blue sky. The rest of the puzzle was beautiful and perfect.

Most people would not agree. Even if it is an old puzzle, every piece is important. A puzzle without all the pieces is an incomplete picture.

We are similar to that puzzle piece. God wants us to be part of his overall picture. It is a tremendous comfort to know how valuable we are. We are important to God. He does not want us to be missing.

God considers us so important that he wants everyone to spend eternity with him. He makes that clear in his Word by saying he “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

There are no unimportant people in God’s eyes. Each one of us is precious to him.

We do not deserve such status. We have not kept God’s demands perfectly. We are sinners and merit his punishment. We deserve to be lost forever and banished to hell. But God paid the price for our sin.

God sent his one and only Son into this world to be our substitute. God has done this all for us. There is no one who is left out. God declares that Jesus Christ “is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

You are an important part of God’s beautiful picture of life. Don’t get lost again! Join us every Sunday to hear more about your loving God and Savior, and see how you fit into his plans.

Pastor R.

It was 5:00 a.m. when Max climbed on the treadmill at his fitness center. He liked the challenge of finishing his exercises and then plunging into a 12-hour workday. As his body began to work up a sweat, his mind searched for something to break the boredom.

Max’s mental replay button flicked on, and he saw his beautiful wife. She was fanatically cleaning the house, as she did every day, totally ignoring anyone around her. Max often joked that he would receive more attention if he were a coffee table. There was not a speck of dust (or intimacy) in their house.

His brain shifted to his son, the star of every sport known to mankind. He was proud of his son, but he didn’t like it that the newspaper reporters knew more about him than he did.

His daughter was very special to him too. She was an impressive chemist now. She had never dated until she met Mr. Perfect. In one year they went from dating to marriage to divorce.

As Max raced in place, his heart ached over how the people he held so dearly had grown so far apart. They were all running so hard in their own directions that they were more like neighbors in an apartment building than a family nestled in a home. Somehow they had become very successful losers.

“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self” (Luke 9:24)? Max was beginning to realize that for all their feverish effort, his family was spiritually bankrupt.

What Max needed to know is that “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Through God’s Son, we have forgiveness, a new identity, and a new reason for living. We don’t have to run away from our failures or run after being someone we’re not.

If you would like to get off the treadmill of life, listen to what Jesus has to say in his Word. It will change your life forever.

Pastor R.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. If this is true, why do people crave power? Why do we see those in power abuse it and those who do not have power struggle against those who do?

Power appeals to our inner self. We may laugh at the poster found in some offices, but wouldn’t mind if it applied to us:
                             Rule #1:  The boss is always right.
                             Rule #2:  If you disagree with the boss, see rule #1

Unfortunately, our inner self has a way of being selfish. It is easy to crave power and neglect people. No wonder there is abuse in the home, corruption in government, violence in the streets, and fraud in business.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Power can be good. Turn on the light switch in a dark room, and you’ll see it. Press the accelerator on your car, and you’ll feel it.

God always used his power for our benefit. That is most easily seen in his mighty gift of salvation for us. He defeated the hosts of hell and won the victory of life for us.

“At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 1:18-20).

Let’s talk about the real Higher Power, and how he wishes to bless us through his love.

Pastor R.