Author: Nathaniel Reutter

Being Happy

What things make you happy? When you landed the new job you wanted? When you moved into your dream house or when you got into the college that you wanted? Maybe you started that relationship with the person of your dreams? Or maybe you’re one of the lucky people out there who have won the lottery. Or you finally reached retirement. We as humans have a funny way of getting excited and happy about things that ironically cause us much heartache, stress and insomnia in the future.

A good job is a blessing, but even the best jobs will cause stress at some point. And even the best relationships have difficulties — a bad relationship is full of them. And sometimes the things that make us sad: a heart-wrenching breakup, losing a job or even just being quarantined, can actually end up being good for us in the end. Ironic, isn’t it?

My point is this: true happiness is not found in the circumstances of life. These things are fleeting moments that come and go — good moments and bad ones. True happiness is mental state of being thankful for the people and blessings already in our lives today. When you are thankful and content, you are happy.

This doesn’t mean you don’t long for better things in your life. Desiring these things is a powerful force to better yourself, but it means you don’t waste energy focusing on what life would be like if you had those things.

For example, today we all sat down and had lunch together: Ruth made her famous pizza! I was so happy! We talked about our dream house: a big place where we can have people over and each person has space for their things. A nice kitchen and garden for mommy and a nice studio for daddy. A big yard for the kids to play in and have a dog. They are already praying that God gives us the right place! But we don’t focus on what we don’t have. We are thankful for where we do live — we have a beautiful view, a great location, wonderful neighbors, a quite street, a nice little garden, and the list goes on.

Most of all, each and every person in our family knows the love of God personally. They know that not only do daddy and mommy love them, but most importantly God loves them and calls them his children. Do you know that? Knowing the love of the Heavenly Father in Jesus Christ is the key to having lasting, meaningful happiness (which we call joy) that goes beyond any circumstance. But you don’t have to wait until you’re a Christian to start becoming happy — you can become happier by just finding one thing in your life that you’re thankful for and start to thank Jesus for it. Just see what it does to your attitude. We call this worship, and it can change your life.

Lives

Life Inside

What is your inside life like these days? One thing for sure, everyone is getting to see a lot more of inside life these days, and the results aren’t always to our liking. While being at home with the family has many benefits, the constant time together isn’t a good mix for all families. During this time, we seek to give each other grace and be good examples for our children in our attitudes and behavior, but we don’t always get it right. It’s important in those moments that we let our kids know that we messed up. I’ve had to apologize to my kids a couple of times just this week about things I’ve done! And they’ve needed forgiveness for many things as well. But having an environment of love is key to covering each other’s shortcomings, and we all have them.

If you’ve already blown it with your family (and let’s face it, who hasn’t?) then the right thing to do is to ‘fess up — say the words “I’m sorry for…” There’s nothing more freeing and liberating than asking for forgiveness for our shortcomings. Those who give grace receive grace.

We want to be able to look inside our homes, inside our lives, and see something of beauty. If we look inside and it’s full of ugly hate, stress and fear then it’s time that we take these things to God and in Jesus’ name ask for forgiveness of our ways. It’s time to ‘fess up to God. When we do, we receive His grace to change and his power to overcome the darkness within. Then when we look inside, we will see the very love of God changing everything, and that’s special.

Lives

Memory Lane

We may not be able to go out and travel, but we can sure still take a trip down memory lane, and that’s exactly what we did on our newest episode of Life in Japan. Ruth prepared her special pizza and I got home videos together from when the twins were born — from the time when the Reutter family started to grow.

https://youtu.be/SicC8RVMP9Q

Our story hasn’t always been a happy story. In fact, we went through a very difficult phase when, before Rebecca and Anna, we lost our first child during childbirth. She would have been 12 years old now. But it was in that incredibly difficult time that our faith in God grew and we became strong in His Truth. God did not take our daughter away from us. Only the enemy of our souls comes to steal, kill and destroy, but God comes so that we can have life and have it to the full. When we became strong in God and in His Word, His promises to us became very sweet as we experienced our dream come true: having a family of 4 kids.

Whatever difficulty you face today, know this: God is good all the time and His Word (the Bible) has the answer, the truth and the victory you need to see, believe and declare over your life. Keep doing that until you get your breakthrough. For us, it was a family of 4 kids. For you, it may be different, but God has a wonderful plan for each and every one of us, if we would listen to His word and put it into action.

Lives

Relearning Life

Forget “normal” — for better or for worse we’ve entered 2020 and there’s no coming back. Things are different now, and everyone’s adjusting to life these days. Our family has had a fair amount of adjusting to do, just as our latest episode of Life in Japan shows. We’ve had to relearn how to do life in Japan!

Our prayer is that during this time you can discover how much God loves you and desires to protect you, guard you and provide for you. He doesn’t force His love on anybody — He leaves it up to each and every person to respond to Him, but his desire is that everybody respond to His great love in Jesus Christ.

To respond to God’s love, you need to put your hope in God and his Word. We use the word “hope” a lot these days — “I hope things go back to normal soon.” Or “I hope the economy rebounds quickly.” Or “I hope________ recovers quickly.” The way we speak reveals where our hope is placed. And each and every one of our hopes and fears are built on our beliefs. When our hope and beliefs are based on anything but our loving Heavenly Father and His Word, then our hope is shaky at best, just as 2020 is showing us.

But if you hope on God and His Word, then it changes you and strengthens you. You know that He will be faithful to fulfill his promises to guide, protect and provide for those who love Him and respond to his love by living by His Word. Living by the Word of God is so much better than anything else — his Word speaks life and loving correction, His Word guides us, encourages us and strengthens us. No other news does that — the news today is all of death, disease, disaster and tumult. God’s Word is full of unshakeable truth. The news today is a roller coaster of stress. God’s Word is peace in the midst of the storm.

If you need some good news today — and who doesn’t? — open up God’s Word, the Bible, and start reading. Let it challenge you and change you. The Gospel of John is a good place to start. See how God in Jesus has come to give us hope and a future. 2020 may be a terrible year in many regards, but if you discover God and his love for you through it, then you will have found what is most important in life, and that is a very good thing.

Lives

Happy Easter!

It’s time to celebrate the greatest event in history — enjoy this special one hour premiere of our Paz Church online Easter Celebration, featuring great songs, a special kids music presentation and a message about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.