Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Thoughts for the Soul
    Thoughts for the Soul
    Thoughts for the Soul
    Ebook150 pages2 hours

    Thoughts for the Soul

    By David Greiner

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Thoughts for the Soul is filled with personal stories and life observations aimed at encouraging all with the knowledge that God can be heard and seen in the seemingly insignificant happenings of day-to-day life. The entertaining tales found within its pages are comfortingly human, and yet they open our eyes to Gods desire to reveal Himself and His astonishing love for us every day.

    Though written by a pastor to his congregation, these stories are offered to all who have even a whisper of interest in how God relates to us. Each story closes with the encouragement that Pastor David is with you in your pursuit of a meaningful spirituality. He writes not as one who has all the answers but as a fellow explorer, each day trying to see and hear from God concerning the good He has planned for us.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateMar 17, 2014
    ISBN9781490829098
    Thoughts for the Soul
    Author

    David Greiner

    David Greiner has served as pastor to churches in the Southwest. David has enjoyed a lifelong love affair with his wife, Patty, and is devoted to their four children and four grandchildren, from whom many of his stories are drawn.

    Related to Thoughts for the Soul

    Related ebooks

    New Age & Spirituality For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Bicycle Made For One

      Apr 8, 2021

      A Bicycle Made For One
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Dec 30, 2022

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      8 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Nov 19, 2021

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      8 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Mar 18, 2022

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      August July

      Jun 15, 2021

      August July
      34 min read

    • Article

      A Wise Heart

      Oct 25, 2019

      A Wise Heart
      4 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Nov 27, 2020

      I I believe b that we are living in the end times as we read about in all the books of the Gospel and listen to what Jesus had said. He warned of pestilences and famines. I believe that Covid-19 is one of the pestilences, as well as all the locusts t

      7 min read

    • Article

      Rebecca Rose.

      Mar 3, 2022

      Rebecca Rose.
      16 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Feb 11, 2022

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Light From Within

      Sep 26, 2020

      A Light From Within
      6 min read

    • Article

      Wednesday, March 20

      Feb 14, 2019

      WHEN I LOST MY JOB, the timing couldn’t have been worse. I was in the middle of a bitter and costly divorce. And without that salary, I wasn’t sure how to support my newly single self. Lord, what’s going on? I wondered. Months passed, and I decided t

      1 min read

    • Article

      Letter To The Editor

      Feb 10, 2020

      I refer to the “Old Age Homes Are Not Good Enough” letter in your January issue of JOY! Yes, old age homes in African and Eastern societies are not common, because the youth make up the larger part of these populations. In India for example, more tha

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Light From Within

      Oct 26, 2021

      A Light From Within
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Jul 22, 2022

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      9 min read

    • Article

      From vicar TO WICCA

      Nov 23, 2021

      Standing in the wooden pulpit dressed in my long black cassock, I smiled down at the congregation before me, but my heart was heavy. I had just finished preaching a sermon about forgiveness. I was hoping that when the time came, my flock would find i

      4 min read

    • Article

      Pastor Jo Swart

      Aug 26, 2022

      Pastor Jo Swart
      7 min read

    • Article

      Personal Invitation

      Aug 27, 2019

      WHAT WAS I doing here? I’d asked myself that a dozen times since I pulled into the church parking lot. I hadn’t grown up in a very religious house. We went to a service on Christmas, maybe Easter, but not on regular Sundays. So what had brought me he

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Aug 7, 2020

      Greetings in the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In your July issue of JOY! you asked what we are grateful for. I’m grateful for the fact that Jesus Christ saved me and my family. My third born son suffered severe burns on his body, and my last b

      6 min read

    • Article

      Tough Self-love

      Apr 13, 2021

      Tough Self-love
      4 min read

    • Article

      Our Second Act

      Sep 26, 2020

      Our Second Act
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Nov 18, 2019

      As an Anglican, I would just like to say that I do not agree with the church in supporting Palestine and not Israel. I’m sure there are many others who feel the same as me. We pray for the Palestinian Christians and the Israeli Christians. By support

      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Sep 23, 2022

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      7 min read

    • Article

      Yes, You Can!

      Mar 23, 2020

      Yes, You Can!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Is Your Identity In Jesus, Or In The World?

      Oct 21, 2019

      I was born a Jew, but was not raised Jewish. My dad is a messianic Jew, and my mom is not Jewish. I very clearly remember at the age of five asking the Lord to forgive my sins and accepting the grace that He offers through Jesus Christ on the Cross.

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Thoughts for the Soul

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Thoughts for the Soul - David Greiner

      Run Church!

      Breathless. Ecstatic. Alert. Serene.

      I am all of these and more this morning. All because I ran. Well, that is not quite right for I often run and feel none of these qualities afterward. I guess it was why I ran or how I ran or….maybe who ran with me. I was spending some time praying and seeking God in my office early this morning when all of a sudden I had to run. Truly, I had to run! I have never experienced any sensation quite like it. I felt like I would explode if I did not get out of the office and run. I thought that perhaps a brisk walk around the grounds would do but no, I had to run. I broke into a gentle jog but it was not enough, I had to run. And so I ran as hard and as fast as I could and I kept running around the grounds, up and down stairs, again and again. And it was good! I returned to prayer and study rejuvenated and more in love with God, more grateful for his lovingkindness, more assured of his provision, more open to his working outside the schedule I had planned for the day.

      And maybe that last thing was what God was communicating to me, for I do believe the impulse, no the compulsion, to run was from him. For when I returned to my office I had a faint recollection of a verse out of the Song of Solomon. Here it is, Draw me after you and let us run together! The king has brought me into his chambers. We will rejoice in you and be glad; we will extol your love more than wine. The romantic woman in this verse is in love and has a desire to run, not walk, in the joy of growing intimacy with her lover. But she knows she is not capable unless he draws her alongside and is with her in the run. When he does draw her into the run toward intimacy the run becomes a veritable song of joy and gladness, an experience akin to being drunk with love.

      Now here is the thing that excites me so. As I prayed this morning it was out of a residue of weariness, emptiness and discouragement over the fact that there were not enough hours in this particular week to get all the things done that needed to be done in the way I wanted them to be done. But as I sought God he drew me into the run with an object lesson or prophetic picture if you will. The message he had for me, and perhaps for many of you, is that the first thing to be seeking, the primary thing to get done every day is the run of intimacy with him. The hours in the week will remain the same. The projects that need finishing with an eye to quality will still be there. But when we run with God we will be left breathless, ecstatic, alert, serene and drunk with his love. This he desires for us all. His invitation is ever, Come run with me!

      Running with you!

      Pastor David

      Live with heart church!

      A couple summers ago we had a family reunion up at Big Bear. Before we arrived Patty learned that you can take your mountain bike on the ski lift to the top of the mountain (somewhere between 8500 and 8800 feet above sea level). From that point on she was relentless in her pursuit of me taking my bike up the mountain and riding down. What fun you will have! she would gush. But I demurred, reminding her that I had been living at sea level for five years and had not ridden a real hill the entire time. She responded with great confidence that the ride would be all downhill. I replied, admittedly with some exasperation, that I knew better. There is no such thing as a downhill ride that is all downhill.

      Despite my objections Patty talked me into taking my bike along with hers to the reunion. She suggested that we could ride some of the gentler trails together, which we did and which I thoroughly enjoyed. But then my son and son-in-law showed up with their bikes.

      So there I was on the lift, my bike strapped to the seat in front of me, just hours before we were supposed to drive back home to Yuma. At the top we got our gear on, clicked into the pedals and started off on a warm up loop around the peak. We looked at our little map and decided we knew what we were doing. It was going to be downhill all the way! And I think I would have been fine except that the map we were looking at did not show a Y where a decision to go right or left had to be made. And I think we would have gone right except that there was a group of novice riders with a couple of guides resting at the Y, waiting for some slower riders. So, distracted, we went left. I knew I was in trouble when the guides started whooping, All right studs! Way to go! Get after it!

      With one quick, ill-conceived decision a 3.2 mile all downhill ride turned into an 11.6 mile endurance event with no less than five major climbs. While the younger riders embraced the challenge with their young lungs and fresh legs I began, after the third hill, to struggle. I felt like my heart was pounding a thousand beats a minute and my lungs felt like they had been turned inside out. All the dust in the air finally did me in. As I pedaled doggedly along I began hacking with every gasp for air. Aaaghuhh, echoed off the mountain about every 30 seconds. So loud and penetrating was the sound that my son ultimately rode back to ask if I was having a heart attack. I assured him I was fine and sent him on his way thinking sweet thoughts of my wife.

      I obviously finished the ride and tell you truthfully that I would do it again (it was glorious to finish)! But the reason I tell the story is because it reminds me that this journey we are on with God takes a strong heart. The psalmist prayed that God would enlarge his heart for the course God had laid before him (Ps. 119:32). To love enemies takes a large heart. To submit to those who differ with us takes a humble heart. To challenge the enemy of the soul takes a brave heart. To invest in the impoverished takes a generous heart. To carry the gospel into new arenas takes a pioneering heart. To communicate the love and glory of God takes a creative heart. To pray for healing takes a believing heart. To worship as a living sacrifice requires a renewed heart.

      Oh, one more thing. A heart gets larger only when we are moving. See you Sunday!

      Pastor David

      No Fear Church!

      So there I was, rescuing worms.

      Well, before I get to that let me start a bit earlier. We resurfaced the parking lot last week. Nice job. Positive responses all around on Sunday. But the resurfacing caused some issues no one really anticipated. The morning after the resurfacing I went for a little walk to pray and enjoy what was shaping up as a glorious morning. As I walked along the now pristine surface I began to notice worms inching along trying to make their way to penetrable ground. Apparently the overspray from the sprinklers had on the new surface created little rivers that had carried the unsuspecting worms far away from home. Now they were trying their best to make their way back. But the sun was up and drying the surface. Worms and dry surfaces do not work. I knew those worm were doomed. Within minutes their progress would become sluggish and they would end up looking like knock off leather shoe strings.

      So there I was, rescuing worms. And surprised that they appeared for all the world like they did not want to be rescued. As I bent over and made first contact with each worm it would begin to writhe and squirm about probably thinking I was a bird…or a fisherman. I would speak soothingly to each worm, Its okay little fella, don’t be afraid, I am here to rescue you. But they either don’t have ears or didn’t believe me. I did manage, though, to rescue a half dozen or so of the bilateral invertebrates before it hit me, as I am guessing it hit you as soon as you started reading this, David, you are rescuing worms! Have you lost your mind?

      Actually, God does this to me quite often. He creates a story through a unique experience (I don’t usually rescue worms) and then leads me to a Scriptural truth. Thus it was that when I walked back into the office scratching my head over the bizarre kind of out of body experience I had just gone through, I turned to Isaiah and found this verse, Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you of Israel, I will help you, declares the Lord, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. The Lord goes on to promise that though the storm roars and the wind is relentless, the people of God shall rejoice and glory in the Holy One who works always for their good.

      The worm image is used, I believe, not in a deprecating way but as representative of how weak we can be when really bad stuff happens. It is interesting how often we have promises like this one in Isaiah. We find ourselves in precarious circumstances and when the pressure seems to increase we fail to perceive that it may be God working to rescue us. We become anxious and writhe and squirm as if by our flailing about we can extricate ourselves from circumstances intended to turn our attention to an always merciful, rescuing God. This God continues to say to us today, Do not fear, I will help you! But we must train our senses to discern his rescuing work in our lives. To this end I encourage you to read Isaiah 41:1-20 putting your name wherever you read Israel. See if God will not increase your confidence and relieve your fears!

      Growing in confidence with you,

      Pastor David

      Live by faith church!

      I admit to having a great interest if not a passion of sorts for golf. Like most golfers I am always looking for

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1