I am simply amazed at the love and support you give me as your pastor. I don’t let you know how much I appreciate and love you often enough. If the truth be told, this is something that would take a letter each week to you. I love you and enjoy so much being the pastor of this wonderful flock. Thank you for listening intently to God’s Word each week, for putting up with my weaknesses and failings, for blessing my family, for faithfully honoring God by striving to get the

Too often we put off things until tomorrow that we should do today. My Grandma Linnerud had this wooden coin thumb tacked to her cork board in the kitchen called a “tuit” and when somebody said to her, “I’ll do that when I get around to it”, she would show them that coin. If you will allow me, please let me encourage you from the Scriptures we looked at in Hebrews last Sunday morning…

“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13)

What step is God asking you to take today? Let me encourage you to take that step today.

What relationship is God asking you to build today for the sake of the gospel? Let me encourage you to begin building that relationship today.

What friend is God asking you to contact today? Let me encourage you to make that contact today.

What sacrifice (time, energy, money, etc.) is God asking you to make today? Let me encourage you to make that sacrifice today.

What letter or card of encouragement is God moving you to write today? Let me encourage you to write that today.

What visit is God prompting you to make today? Let me encourage you to get in the car and visit them today.

Today may only be the beginning of your obedience, but at least it’s a start. All our obedience has to start somewhere, with someone ,and at some point. And when tomorrow rolls around remember: we don’t call tomorrow “tomorrow” when it arrives, we call it today. Each day represents a brand new start with new opportunities to obey God. So let’s do today what God calls us to do while we can still call today today.

Grace & Peace,

Scott

Are you surviving “Snowpocalyse II”? I hope so, and just in case you are having a difficult time here are some ideas.

I think these times of being shut in at home gives us opportunities to reconnect with family in ways that the normal week doesn’t present. Here we are, isolated for an extended period of time from the rest of the world except spouse and kids – family. We can choose to wait and get cabin fever or we can use this time to build memories. This is a divinely appointed time to reconnect. But how do we do that? Here are a few suggestions…

Get outside and play! Build a snowman, slide down the hill in the backyard on cookie sheets, design a show castle, play hide-n-seek, make snow angels, or have a snowball fight. If you can imagine it, I believe you can pull it off.

Make some homemade hot chocolate and cookies! Get everyone involved so they feel like they are a part of the team. Everybody should have a job. You may not want to do this close to bedtime because sugar highs don’t make for sleepy children.

Pull out the games and see who comes out the champion! Competition is good and I believe the best place for kids to learn how to win and lose is in the context of the home. Let each of the kids choose a game, set a time limit so you can play all the games, and let it fly. You can even dream up prizes or rewards for the winners.

Produce a home movie. For this one you’ll need to write out a short script, plan for good lighting, get everyone to play a part, shoot the movie, do a little editing (you can find free software on the internet), pop some popcorn, turn out the lights, and have a fun family movie night. Put it on YouTube…who knows, maybe you’ll become famous.

Build a blanket fortress. Blanket forts are a blast. I don’t think you can ever outgrow the fun and adventure of building a fort made out of blankets. Divide into two teams and see who can make the best fort. Invite the other team over for pop tarts and gummy worms. Get out the nerf weapons and attempt a siege of one another’s territory.

Doing things as a family will build wonderful memories into the fabric of your family that you will never forget. These memories are essential to family unity. Kids (and spouses) need to see a side of us that is not so serious, and playing with them kicks open the door for all to see that side of us. We don’t need an official family vacation to let our hair down, kick back, relax, and have some fun.

Grace & Peace,

We are enslaved to all sorts of things. When we think of being in bondage to something we mostly think of drug addictions, but I think that is much too narrow a view. Being in bondage to sin involves so much more than a small subset of legal and illegal drugs. We need to expand our thinking to include such things as the intangible, like power, fear, acceptance, image, etc., and such tangible things, like money, cars, clothes, etc. No matter how you look at it, being in bondage freezes us spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and financially. It’s like we

Here is something that amazes me, God provides a release from this bondage through His marvelous grace. Think about it…if God can free us from the bondage of our old master, Satan, could His grace not release us from something like being enslaved to the need to have all the power or the need to have all the latest fashions or the need to be right?

Every sin is a declaration that God isn’t enough. When we sin we are screaming that God cannot satisfy our deepest longing but this replacement of God can.

Sin enslaves and produces addicts of everyone. Those who live enslaved to sin are riding an escalator. The sin committed and ignored will only need something more and greater to satisfy the appetite once fed. Our new master wants more and more of us because sin is never satisfied. Every sin becomes a “drug” we take to deal with a pressure we face that we don’t think we can face with God’s grace. It is a slow spiritual suicide we commit when sin is ignored, and sometimes we choose not to even know what’s taking place in our lives. After all, “ignorance is bliss,” we’ve told ourselves long enough and now we believe it.

The grace God offers through Jesus doesn’t end at salvation, no the grace of the gospel continues with us each day to free us from the power of sin in our lives. Paul wrote to the Romans,

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)

When Paul says, “who are being saved” he is talking about sanctification…our everyday life of growing in God’s grace. He furthers says this is a demonstration of God’s power. God’s power to do what? It is God’s ability and authority to keep us from going back into the slavery of sin.

Jesus said,

 “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:34, 36)

It is only through turning our backs on sin and trusting God through His grace that we can be free. The promise and hope we have is that God is enough. God can and will satisfy the deepest longings of our soul. What we need to do is experience that God is enough; we must fight for a hungering and thirsting for God.

“I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.” (Psalm 143:5-6)

Grace & Peace,