Monday Jan 20, 2025

Hi this is Pastor Jim Driskell of Christ Lutheran Church with the NCTV 45 thought for the Day.

Many people try to make Jesus into a sort of idealist, kumbaya, eastern guru, who frankly, let’s just say not real genuine. No, stop it, did you know that Jesus talked more about money, than He did about heaven? And it’s not in the sense of “ok, come on, gotta pony up more money”. No it’s in the sense of we are given this stewardship by God as one of many ways that we grow in Him. Jesus was very practical and very empathetic on the topic of money, but it along with many other issues, is something that has a very profound impact on people and should be taken seriously. In Matthew 25:18-23 “The one who received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.” Now this doesn’t earn this person any more in his eternal salvation, but as Jesus was a good and faithful servant to us, we should be to Him. We should trust that the Holy Spirit is working through us in order to conform us to God’s will, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And kinda not talking about money so much as: “Well done good and faithful servant.” We are trusting what Jesus is asking us to do. I saw one person say that in today’s value, we would be talking about $10,000. That’s not a lot of money, it’s not small either. But Jesus is saying you have trusted in me, you have followed my leading. You were faithful to me to do My will. We owe so much to Jesus in every part of our life, how can we truly serve Him.   

I’m Jim Driskell the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church 1302 E Washington St, New Castle, Pa check us on the web Christlutheran-new castle.org questions comments contact me on the website. For a transcript of today’s Thought go to: wordpress.com/view/revjamesdriskellmdiv.com Sunday worship is at 10:30am, with the NCTV 45 thought for the day, God bless your day

Tuesday Jan 21, 2025

Hi this is Pastor Jim Driskell of Christ Lutheran Church with the NCTV 45 thought for the Day.

We’re talking about Matthew 25:18-23 where Jesus’ servants go and serve Him with the resources He has given us in order to serve Him. I know, such an abhorrent thought that we should be “serving” anyone. Hmmmmm how much would our family relations improve if we saw ourselves as more in how to serve our spouse, children, parents, siblings. Oh no, we can’t do that! We’re here to grab for everything we can in order to boost our place in the world, not to put someone higher than us. Sure there are plenty of times where we are given the opportunity to improve our place in the world, and usually we jump on it. But too often what we are given by God is taken for granted, and we don’t really appreciate what we are given. Jesus gave His life to serve us, that He did to pay for our sins, He made us righteous and worthy to have everlasting life in Him in His resurrection. Jesus tells His faithful: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” It is my purpose in life that I will be worthy to hear Him say that to me when I am in His presence. This isn’t what I earned, everything I have is earned and given to me by Jesus, but I am faithful to Him in how I serve Him. Jesus finishes “Throw out the worthless servant into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” So many like to make Jesus into a cream puff, that He takes whatever we give Him and He’s just happy with that. If you won’t serve Jesus, you just don’t care how it works out, you are saying that He is not important to you and you won’t be important to Him.

I’m Jim Driskell the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church 1302 E Washington St, New Castle, Pa check us on the web Christlutheran-new castle.org questions comments contact me on the website. For a transcript of today’s Thought go to: wordpress.com/view/revjamesdriskellmdiv.com Sunday worship is at 10:30am, with the NCTV 45 thought for the day, God bless your day

Wednesday Jan 22, 2025

Hi this is Pastor Jim Driskell of Christ Lutheran Church with the NCTV 45 thought for the Day.

Dr Reed Lessing one of my favorite seminary professors. He’s written a lot of books, I’m in the middle of his book “Overcoming Life’s Problems.” The book is a commentary on the Book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah suffered immensely from Israel’s enemies, and from his own people in Israel, and totally unjustly. He is reporting to the king what God tells him to report. Jeremiah isn’t trying to provoke anyone, but he has to serve God as God directs him. Dr Lessing uses this one example of how we can start with great intentions, still end up paying for what we thought was right, he writes: “Maybe you heard about this incident on a company accident form. ‘When I got to the building, I saw that the earthquake had knocked off some bricks around the top, so I set up a beam with a pulley at the top of the building and hoisted up two barrels full of bricks. After I fixed the damaged area, there were leftover bricks. I went to the bottom and began releasing the line. Unfortunately the barrel of bricks was heavier than I was and, before I knew it, the barrel started coming down, jerking me up. I decided to hang on since, in a matter of seconds, I was too far off the ground to jump. When I hit the beam at the top, the barrel of bricks hit the ground, spilling the bricks. I was now heavier than the barrel. I started down at high speed. When I hit the ground, I landed on the bricks. I let go of my grip on the rope and the barrel came down, hitting me in the head.’ Talk about concussion protocol. Happened to Jeremiah, it’s happened to me. We are called to be good and faithful servants and we are going to get lumps when we do and we have to trust God’s will and not worry about our feelings or how bad we physically suffered.

I’m Jim Driskell the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church 1302 E Washington St, New Castle, Pa check us on the webChristlutheran-new castle.org questions comments contact me on the website. For a transcript of today’s Thought go to: wordpress.com/view/revjamesdriskellmdiv.com Sunday worship is at 10:30am, with the NCTV 45 thought for the day, God bless your day

Thursday Jan 23, 2025

Hi this is Pastor Jim Driskell of Christ Lutheran Church with the NCTV 45 thought for the Day.

We are talking about Dr Reed Lessing’s book “Overcoming Life’s Problems”, we do the best we can as I quoted him yesterday with the man and the barrel of bricks, but we can still end up getting hurt. And yes, sometimes we will have to take the lumps, people have been doing it for centuries in the cause of Christ. Those people we call martyrs, they stood up for their faith in Jesus, knew the possibilities and ended up paying with their life. I’m not hear to be a recruiting poster for Jesus as so many who are phony in their faith in Jesus. He told us that the world would hate us that we would suffer. We serve Jesus, the world wants to bring us down into the pit of sin and mediocrity and we weren’t meant for that. But Jesus still does do miracles and I’ve been blessed by that too. Dr Lessing writes: “It’s tempting to cut everyone out of life. We no longer have the energy it takes to invest in relationships. Depression and anxiety overwhelm us. Sadness and fear… John tells us why. ‘When Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days’. Many Jews in Christ’s day believed that after death, a person’s soul hovered over the dead body for three days. On the fourth day, however, the soul departed. That’s when death became irreversible. That’s when Jesus shows up – on the fourth day. Jesus didn’t want to do a difficult miracle. Jesus wants to do an impossible miracle – something that demonstrates beyond any doubt that He is God.” We know He is God and we submit to Him and trust His will. His is that good and perfect will and is all for those He loves in Jesus and who serve Jesus.

I’m Jim Driskell the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church 1302 E Washington St, New Castle, Pa check us on the web Christlutheran-new castle.org questions comments contact me on the website. For a transcript of today’s Thought go to: wordpress.com/view/revjamesdriskellmdiv.com Sunday worship is at 10:30am, with the NCTV 45 thought for the day, God bless your day

Friday Jan 24, 2025

Hi this is Pastor Jim Driskell of Christ Lutheran Church with the NCTV 45 thought for the Day.

If you know science, especially in terms of mathematics, computers, technology, you will know the name Blaise Pascal.

There are these pretentious little fops out there who like to tell people like me, Oh I believe in science… and wouldn’t even know who Pascal was. Just like so many of the most brilliant minds in history, they were devout Christians, as well as the highest rank of scientists. They knew perfectly well that everything around us had to have been created, that it is statistically impossible for the universe to just create itself the way that it’s created. If you understand the complexity and the obvious “intelligent design” of everything in the universe and made that way in order for us to be able to survive on this tiny little blue dot in a rather remote spot in the universe than you will understand that it had to be the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, transcendent power of a completely all powerful God, not an accident or the inert, consciousless “universe”. In his book “Pensees” Pascal writes: It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason. This, then, is faith: God blessed by the heart, not by the reason.

Faith is a gift of God; do not believe that we said it was a gift of reasoning. Other religions do not say this of their faith. They only gave reasoning in order to arrive at it, and yet it does not bring them to it. Do not wonder to see simple people believe without reasoning. God imparts to them love of Him and hatred of self. He inclines their heart to believe. Men will never believe with a saving and real faith, unless God inclines their heart; and they will believe as soon as He inclines it. And that is what David knew well…” God gives us the faith to know Him, to trust Him, to serve Him and to know that in the end we will be in His very presence in a perfected, magnificent world where as Jesus promised there will be life and life more abundant. That will be as a result of the faith He gave us and what Jesus did to save us. Nothing we did for faith or our eternal salvation.

I’m Jim Driskell the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church 1302 E Washington St, New Castle, Pa check us on the web Christlutheran-new castle.org questions comments contact me on the website. For a transcript of today’s Thought go to: wordpress.com/view/revjamesdriskellmdiv.com Sunday worship is at 10:30am, with the NCTV 45 thought for the day, God bless your day