Text Box: Remember the last time someone gave you encouragement? You may have been going through a difficult phase in your life, feeling as if you were under great pressure to have balance as you were performing this dance called life. Just when you felt that you were not going to make it, like you were going to lose your balance, a friend pulled near with encouragement that gave you strength that propped you up so you would not lose your balance. While their words may not have been especially wise or elegant, the fact that they took the time to encourage you gave you additional strength and fortitude to keep on keeping on. Could today be a day that you could take on that role of the supporting encourager? I believe it can be. Just look around and ask God to reveal to you that person that needs your encouragement. It may be a pastor, it may be co-worker, it may be a family member, but I can assure you that it is someone near by. God bless you as you allow yourself to be used of God to encourage others. In His arms,

Text Box: Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Recently, Judy and I were taken to a performance of The Nutcracker by a dear friend of ours. Now I know that those of you who know me very well are a bit confused by the image of me at a ballet. Of course, that does not compare to the hilarity of the image of me being in a ballet! However, I have to tell you that I learned something very important while watching this ballet. As you may already know, the most difficult part of performing ballet is the developed skill of dancing on the top of one’s toes. It is not a matter of tiptoeing, but it is actually being on the edge of one’s toes. It is certainly a skill that is way beyond my abilities, particularly at my current age. I watched as the ballerinas would quick step across the stage on the edges of their toes. At times, they even seemed to glide. It was apparent that one thing that helped them stay on the ends of their toes was the constant movement about the stage. Standing still simply was not a viable option because it required motion to be able to stay on top of the toes.

Text Box: A very different dynamic occurred whenever the ballerina was dancing with a male partner. While there were times the dance did involve movement across the stage, with motion that allowed the ballerina to stay on her toes, there were large portions of those dances that did not include the motion, yet the ballerina remained on her toes. The male partner would have his attention completely and totally focused on his partner, the ballerina. He would watch every movement she made with her body. Often he was right next to her, with little space between them. He would place one or both of his hands either on her back or around her waist while she was on her toes. This fairly slight physical contact would give the ballerina the support she needed to be able to remain on her toes without the need to keep moving to maintain her balance. The two of them worked together to help her successfully complete those portions of the dance that involved pirouettes and stances without falling. He would give her balance and support so that she could successfully complete all phases of the ballet dance.

Be Prepared to Encourage

by Pastor Dave Bassett

Text Box: Building God’s
Kingdom Together

November 26, 2007

November, 2007 — Issue #2

Building God’s Kingdom Newsletter

Special points of interest:

· Be Prepared to Encourage

by Pastor Dave Bassett

· Delight Yourself In The Lord

by Judy Bassett

· The Sin Offering

by Pastor Dave Bassett

Rev. Dave Bassett is the pastor of Rosewood Lane Church of the Nazarene. Click the link to see the church’s website at
http://www.nazarene.ch/RosewoodLane
for info on the Rosewood Lane Church in Layton, Utah. We would love to have you visit our church!

Delight Yourself In The Lord!

by Judy Bassett

Psalm 37:4 says “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” What does this mean to you?

The words enjoyment, pleasure, happiness, joy, glee, gladness, enchantment and amusement are all synonyms for the word delight. I truly believe that God wants us to be happy in Him. We should be praising God with all our hearts, in order to “delight” ourselves in Him.

What are some ways that you can delight yourself in the Lord? Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is to lead someone to Christ. That would be the delight of my day! Another way would be to give, either monetarily, or of my time and talents, in the name of Jesus Christ. When we give, I think that we “delight” ourselves in Him.

When I think of ways to “delight” in the Lord, I think of that saying “what would Jesus do?” What would Jesus do in order to delight in His heavenly father. Do you realize that God is Jesus’ heavenly father and is also our heavenly father? We can delight in the fact that God loved us so much that He gave His one and only son to live on earth and go through what we go through, then to die and be raised again on the third day, just so you and I can be saved from our sins.

We can delight in the fact that some day we will be able to be in the presence of God himself, as long as we have accepted Jesus as our personal savior. This is possible purely because Jesus died for our sins. If we didn’t have a way to be cleansed from our sins, we could never be in the presence of the Father. He can not be in the presence of sin, and we are sinful beings. We can delight in the fact that we are made pure through the blood of Jesus Christ. All we have to do is ask!

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