The value we hold dearest to us at Calvary Church is the glory of God. My prayer for us is the same as David’s was for Israel of old,

²⁰There is none like you, O LORD, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears, ²⁴and your name will be established and magnified forever… (1 Chronicles 17:20, 24)

We can establish ourselves as a neighborhood church in Boiling Springs; we can establish ourselves as a friendly church with a family atmosphere; we can establish ourselves as a biblical teaching church; we can establish ourselves as a church with great programs for children and youth; we can establish ourselves as a church with off the hook music. All of these are good ideas, but they are too easy targets at which to shoot. Our target must be bigger than ourselves; our target must be to establish God’s name so that others would magnify now and in the coming generations. Those other things are great avenues to glorify God, and are objectives that can be used to accomplish making a name for God in Boiling Springs, but let’s be careful not to make them the main focus of the church.

You see, making the means of hitting the bullseye the target itself suffers from the danger of self-focus. Self-focus is dangerous because it reeks of prideful arrogance. And to be honest, when did it become about us in the first place? It is all about God and how He receives the honor and glory through all our efforts and sacrifices. We must learn to take ourselves out of the way in order for God to be honored the best.

Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! (Psalm 34:3).

Grace & Peace,

Welcome Gavin Lee Edwards, given by God to Jamie & Jonathan Edwards on May 21, 2012 at 12:25 am, 5 lbs. 11 oz., 19 inches! To his parents I say, “Congratulations” and echo Solomon’s wise words from Psalm 127,

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth!

The Edwards family is one of our most recent additions to the Calvary family; they joined on Mother’s Day. One week later they were making those memorable trips back and forth to the hospital. Finally Gavin thought it was okay to come out and meet his mom and dad (and grandma and grandpa, aunt, great grandma, great aunts and uncles, you get it!).

Gavin’s birth (every birth) reminds me of the gravity of parenthood. Being a parent is overloaded with joys. We have those “firsts” that are so exciting and emotional. What will be their first words? When will they take their first step? What will their first day of school be like? However, not all child raising is full of sunshine and posies. Dangerous potholes await every child. It is the solemn and sacred duty of Christian parents (like Jonathan and Jamie) to help navigate their children along the road. Children don’t raise themselves. God has sovereignly placed children in homes with parents to teach them about life, disciple them in the Bible, warn them about wrong choices, and applaud them on a job well done.

Parents, remember that every child is a gift from God. Every day we have them is another opportunity to lovingly parent them. Don’t waste even what would seem an insignificant event on a seemingly unimportant day. Every touch we make with our children is life changing, and there are only so many we have!

Grace & Peace,

Graduations are upon us! Yes, its that time of year when we celebrate and congratulate. Every graduate feels a sense of accomplishment that deserves recognition. At Calvary Church we have a tradition of jumping right in and recognizing our high school graduates on Graduation Sunday. This Sunday, May 20^th is that Sunday. We will start things off with breakfast at 9 a.m. honoring our graduate Jared Waters. During this time we will have a basket in which we can put cards and gifts to bless Jared as he takes the next step. In the fall he will be attending Auburn University.

One of the reasons we do this is to bring attention to our graduates so that we remember to pray for them. Prayer truly is the greatest gift we can give our young people. They face greater trials and pressures every year. It is both our duty and delight to take them before the throne of grace and pray for their endurance. We need to pray they make good choices. We need to pray they study hard and remember what they’ve studied. We need to pray they excel and find God’s will for their lives.

Reading through Paul’s letters will leave one with a sense that he valued prayer. He prayed for the churches and he asked them to pray for him. If we read the Bible as instruction for us, and I think we should, then prayer needs to be a focused ministry in the church. Prayer cannot be taken lightly and should not be neglected.

Pray without ceasing…pray for us. (1 Thessalonians 5:17, 25)

Grace & Peace,

Now, for all us kids out there who still have our mothers let me challenge us to pick three to five characteristics of our moms that have the most meaning, and when we are writing her a Mother’s Day card tell her why these characteristics mean so much to you about her. This is going to take some thinking, and it means that we just can’t sign the card. I want all of us to put some genuine effort into communicating to our moms just how much they mean to us. Keep in mind that they have spent countless hours investing themselves into our lives. We are who we are because of the influence of these women.

Do your mom a huge favor this week and take her to church and then lunch. I believe it would mean so much to her to have you sitting beside her on this special day. I know Barb loves these days when she is able to sit in church with our four; it is a special day out of the year that she knows they’ve made a special effort to worship with mom.

Happy Mother’s Day!

As I bring another series of messages to a close I usually look back and wonder if we got it. Did we get the main point of what the author of Judges was trying to communicate? If we didn’t then I feel that I haven’t accomplished what God has called me to do. If I could give you a one-sentence summary of Judges it would be:

Forgetting God and excessively devoting ourselves to something else always ends in being enslaved by those idols.

Time and time again the tribes of Israel forgot about God and pursued the gods of their day. The phrase “Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD” is repeated seven times (2:11; 3:7, 12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1) and gives us a clue as to their problem. The root of the Hebrews’ evil was in forgetting God and chasing after the gods of their time. The gods they became devoted to were the false religions of the day. They began worshipping the Baals and Asheroth of the Philistines and the Amorites and the Perizites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

Once they were on the road to idolatry God would give them over to be “owned” by these foreign nations. Soon enough the Israelites would have enough and would cry out to God for deliverance. What is beautiful in the story of Judges is that even though the Israelites forgot God, God never forgot them. The evidence of this is that when they repented God was there to rescue them from the domination of the nations and their gods. He would raise up a judge to lead them out of their oppression and slavery. This deliverance resulted in years of blessing, peace and prosperity. And then the cycle would begin again…

The difference between then and today is that our gods don’t look the same. Yes, we have the same problem of excessive devotion to something else other than God, but we usually don’t worship our gods by making little statues. Our gods follow the American dream that in reality is a nightmare. Our gods are leisure, consumerism, addiction, entertainment and narcissism. We have become so consumed with the things of this world that following God is no longer engaging. To be honest the gods of the 21^st century “own” us and are beating us down every day. The only way out is to cry out to God and ask Him to rescue us.

The design of preaching through Judges was not to be a wet blanket but to give us all hope when we find ourselves buried under a present-day god of this world. The hope is found in pursuing our relationship with God, not chasing after the American dream!

Grace & Peace,

Have I told you lately how much I love you? Well, I do. It is an awesome honor to pastor such a wonderful people.

Only two regular and one handicap parking places left open on Easter Sunday! That means we had a great group of people who came to worship the risen King, but that also means we've got to do something about parking. Nice problem to have. But with this problem we have responsibilities. We have the responsibility to nurture and love those who come (you know, minister to them). We have a responsibility to turn the curious into disciples. Jesus said, “Make disciples”, not get a crowd. We need to find out what Jesus did with the crowds when they gathered around Him.

We notice in Matthew 4:23ff that He taught them the gospel and how the gospel comes to bear on their lives. The gospel is transformative and that is what we should be shooting for with our teaching and preaching. Whether we are sharing with one or two hundred, whether it is on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday night, it is a sacred time.

Jesus also met their needs. At times Jesus healed them and at other times He fed them. Over and over I read that Jesus had compassion on people and that compassion moved Him to action. He didn’t see them as numbers to be counted or potential givers; Jesus saw them as people who had genuine needs. This is going to take time and energy from all of us; we must get involved in people’s lives.

Finally, He got the other disciples involved in the ministering. While teaching the crowds He was really teaching His disciples. For example, when He fed people He asked His disciples what they would do. Their response was to send them off to get their own lunch (14:15). Because they were wrong He corrected them and got them on board with what He wanted to do. Ministry is not a one-person show; it is going to take everyone doing his or her part. What part are you playing?

Grace & Peace,