May 23, 2013

“a slave of God and of Christ Jesus” James 1:1
 

These are the words of James, the brother of Jesus...leader in the church at Jerusalem.  What a man he was. What privileges he could have taken advantage of. What rights he laid down by choosing to be a slave of God.  This is not the choice most would make...but for those of us who take the Scriptures seriously...it is a choice we cannot deny making.  Jesus, speaking to all of us said, “I am among you as one who serves.” Luke 22:27b.  If this was Jesus, who are we?  How should this challenge and shape our homes?  The answer is... In the deepest way possible. 

Last weekend we were challenged to become servants in our homes and pursue 4 qualities that every servant must have... humility, responsibility, dependability and loyalty.  Today is a new and fresh day, one in which we may pursue servant-hood again... for the sake of our homes and the strength our homes need... it’s my prayer we make this choice again.  What a difference this choice will make!

This coming weekend we will wrap up our series BLUEPRINTS with a message called “Walk-through.”  You could get an early jump on it by looking at our verses - Psalm 46:1, 10.  This will be communion Sunday as well and I am so looking forward to it.

You will also be getting a preview of our upcoming new series.  It's going to be a great summer!

We love you and look so forward to each and every Sunday as we gather to worship the goodness of our God, catch up with friends and challenge ourselves with the Words of scripture.

Pastor Craig, Becky, Seth, Hannah and Riley the dog

May 8, 2013

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. ⁸ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”  Philippians 4:6-8

At the end of services on Sunday we saw over half our families standing to their feet as an act of faith reaching out to God for the peace of Christ.  This peace is not an accident.  It is the product of deliberate choices we make—choices to stop allowing the worry of the “worst case scenarios” to invade our homes and our conversations. 

We made a choice to let go of these conversations and stop selling off today for the fear of tomorrow.  When fear of tomorrow overrides the mission of today we have missed the peace of Christ.  If I were translating this verse from the Greek language into English, this is how I would write it: “Don't project the fear of tomorrow on today.  Instead, pray . . . get the heart of God for your situation . . . don't give up until you do.  When you get His heart, He gets your heart . . . trust Him, He knows what He is doing . . . He is good.  Then thank Him for every little and big thing He has ever done in and around your life.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can get our heads around.” 

I am challenged to think on these things.  I hope you are as well.  The anxiety of problems and real difficulties have robbed our homes of strength for too long.  Let the peace of Christ have His way.

This next weekend is Mother’s Day!  We are going to have a great time celebrating the goodness of our God as well as our mothers.  Each woman will receive something sweet.  Our message will be continuing in our BLUEPRINTS series and I hope you will come early to get good seats.

We look forward to seeing you!

Pastor Craig, Becky, Seth, Hannah and Riley the dog

May 1, 2013

Thank you, Doug Britton, for your teaching last Sunday on partnership in marriage.  I appreciate the depth and practical knowledge Doug brings each time he teaches.  So many of you have told me how much you appreciate it as well.  Let’s not let go of that teaching. Get hold of it and live it today!

This coming weekend we are continuing in our series BLUEPRINTS as we look at our homes as “A Refuge.”  How do we do that?  As always, we will look at our Blueprints to find the answer.  There are a lot of distractions and antagonisms that threaten our refuge and we don’t want to give up the fight.  Too many do and we are settling for less when we do.  If your home is not a refuge, please know that with God’s help it absolutely can be.  Take an early look at Philippians 4:2-8 in preparation for the message to come.

As always, we are looking forward to seeing you, celebrating the goodness of God, catching up with friends and being encouraged by the message of hope.

We have been working on plans for the summer and will be announcing them soon, so be on the look-out.

Pastor Craig, Becky, Seth, Hannah and Riley the dog