Christians are givers not takers. Those who’ve genuinely experienced the life rescuing grace of God have been turned from selfish grabbers to selfless gifters. God has built it into the DNA of His children to be generous, that’s what grace does to a person! Notice how Paul uses the believers in Macedonia to prove this point:

“We want you to know brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part” (2 Corinthians 8:1-2, emphasis added).

Even though affliction was their experience, generosity was their expression. The specific affliction they were suffering (at least one of them) was their poverty. The fountainhead of this generosity is God’s grace. Grace received responds in a like manner…it offers whatever we have to others. We are not the judge and jury of another’s need; their need is between them and the Lord. When we are made aware of a genuine need we don’t respond by looking at our needs and comparing to see if we are in a worse condition. The Christians in Macedonia were in the worst financial condition of all the churches under Paul’s care, but they were the ones who responded most generously.

The Christmas season is simply a trigger or platform for believers to give in specific and generous ways. We have families in our church who are in need financially. All you have to do is keep your ears and hearts open and you will see what I mean. I want to challenge you to give to those you believe are in need. You can do this anonymously by sending a gift through the church and simply designating it to the family in need.

There, I’ve given you a practical way you can express generosity even if you’re experiencing hostility. No matter the condition of your circumstances, they should never dictate the direction of your heart. God bless you as you give to others for the cause of the kingdom of God.

Grace & Peace,

By the end of this week the turkey will be a history, the family gathered around telling funny stories from years passed will be a pleasant memory, Christmas music will be cranked up 24/7, the Christmas tree will be half decorated, and shopping will just have begun! Oh the joys this week signals. It is perhaps my favorite time of year because of all that it reminds me of: Jesus, family and hope.

The world we live in is pretty messed up, but it is not without its redeeming qualities. The world God created is a wonderful place to live, and everyday we look around we can find cause for rejoicing and even some hope. However, if all we ever do is look to the surrounding culture to give us hope then we would ultimately without hope. The hope that is offered “out there” is temporary at best and deceiving at worst. But if we allow this season of the year to remind us of the hope God offers then everything can change around us.

“O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption” (Psalm 130:7).

This instruction to Israel to place their hope in God is not a misplaced hope and is a promise that still holds true today. Turning to the Lord replaces hopelessness with hope because in the Lord we find steadfast love and redemption. The hope that comes from God is redemption and redemption radically changes everything.

So let the mistletoe, tinsel, music of the season, trips to the mall, the smell of cookies baking, and Christmas parties remind you of the hope God has given to us through Jesus Christ. Hope is what we all look for and hope is found in Jesus.

Grace & Peace,

Thankfulness is a trait characteristic of all cultures from all ages whether or not they know God personally. This is because God’s common grace invades everyone’s life to make them grateful. However, not everyone is thankful all the time. Usually people are grateful when good things happen to them, but when an event turns bad that’s when the gratitude attitude takes a vacation. This is not true in the believer’s life…at least it shouldn’t be. God’s children are thankful when the bad times are rolling, when the wheels fall off, when things aren’t exactly going our way, or when someone has sucked all the sweet off our sucker.

At the end of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians he pulled out his automatic gospel gun and just fired off a bunch of commands. One of them that’s gets right up into our faces and screams for us to practice in our world today is,

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:19).

As simple as this command is, it is equally difficult to practice. It is not easy to give thanks in a culture that is discontent at every turn. We live in a world that is not a happy one. People around us are not happy with their jobs, spouses, friends, vacations, church, or even their happy meal! We are a complaining society, and we are defined as odd and out of touch with reality if we aren’t griping about something.

Sometimes we need to change our circumstances, but usually that’s not what God is calling us to. He is calling us to change our attitude and press into Him more closely during harrowing times. All circumstances are under the control of our sovereign God. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens to God’s child that doesn’t first pass through His hands, and His hands are always gracious, kind and loving.

Instead of following the path of our complaining culture let’s just scrape the pickle off our happy meal hamburger and eat, thanking God that we have something to eat, teeth to chew, taste buds to enjoy, and a digestive system to process the food. Not everybody has those!

Grace & Peace,

Living should never be defined by getting what we think we deserve whether that is a gift, cash, job, promotion, trophy, applause, position, or whatever. For those who are in Christ really living is defined by the relationship we have with the Creator of the universe. This relationship isn’t something we truly sought for and definitely not something we deserved.

God adopted us into His family through the costly sacrifice of His one and only unique Son, Jesus Christ. We could never try hard enough nor pay enough to gain entrance into the family of God. Through a great act of mercy, compassion, love and grace God sovereignly gave His Son and Jesus willingly laid down His life to secure our place back home with God.

Everything we enjoy now had its beginning, middle and end with Jesus. We can’t name a blessing we enjoy that doesn’t ultimately find its source in the holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Think about it in light of two verses:

“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3).

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16).

These verses just don’t apply to believers, they apply to everyone, whether they are a child of God or not. However, only God’s children will recognize that everything comes from the hand of a gracious God; therefore, only those who are His will return genuine thanksgiving for the gifts they receive.

Have you counted your blessings lately and given thanks to God for them?

Grace & Peace,

Barb and I never wanted our kids’ past failures to define them. We wanted them to recognize their problems, confess their sin, change their direction or behavior, and wake up to a brand new tomorrow without something hanging over their heads. That’s why we didn’t do a lot of grounding or long-term punishment that went on for days, weeks or months. If my parents took the grounding approach to my sinful behavior then I would still be in my room not eating dessert – and they sold our house two years ago!

God is a perfect Father and knows exactly what we need to grow us spiritually. The Bible promises that He will discipline His unruly child.

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:5-6).

Discipline is a sign of relationship. God will only discipline His own children with a trajectory toward conformity to the holy character of His perfect Son, Jesus Christ. He has a prefect goal with His perfect discipline.

But what about when we suffer and didn’t do anything wrong? For example, what about Job? Even Job eventually realized that God’s “secret” workings were not arbitrary and capricious. In the middle of trying to figure out what in the world was going on in his life Job declared,

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold” (Job 23:10).

That is pain with a purpose. God is in control of the good and the bad in our lives. It is our responsibility to submit to His good plan and rest assured that His moment-by-moment grace will be sufficient during our weakness. God doesn’t want our past failures to define us. He desires us to repentant of sin and move into a brand new tomorrow experiencing His mercy. He is a perfect Father and knows exactly how to get us to this point. So, what’s holding you back from obedience to the heavenly Father?

Grace & Peace,

J. I. Packer begins the nineteenth chapter in his book Knowing God:

“What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father.”

I would like to think about his definition of a Christian on two levels:

First, not everyone knows God as Father; therefore, we cannot say that everyone is a Christian. The Bible never teaches a universal sonship, like, everyone gets to heaven (the Father’s house according to Jesus in John 14) because of some sort of sincerity test. No, Jesus is the only way to get to the Father, and faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus to save is the only right response to this extraordinary grace (cf. John 14:6). Paul also made it very clear how we become sons and daughters of God:

“For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 5:26; cf. John 1:12-13).

God becomes our Father through the exclusive path of faith in what Jesus accomplished for us at Calvary. He gave His life in death so we could have eternal life (cf. John 3:16).

Second, God primarily relates to Christians as His children and we should primarily relate to one another then as daughters and sons of God. We must use the same glasses God uses to see one another, through the lens of adoption.

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son…to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

This means we are in the same family; we are spiritual siblings. And since we are in the same family we should love one another with a pure heart. A “pure heart” love is loving without an agenda or seeking something for selfish reasons from the relationship. It is loving un-hypocritically, authentically, and sacrificially. And I don’t think God wants us fighting over the kingdom toys like selfish two-year-olds.

Do we see one another as God’s sons and daughters? Or do we see one another as competitors? How we treat one another will reveal how we see one another.

Grace & Peace,

Do we really understand the heart of a problem if we only treat one symptom and ignore what is at the root? I am thinking of something very specific this week in light of the tragic events in Rosenburg, Oregon. I think we are a society that is happy to continue picking fruit to destroy the evil tree instead of taking a chainsaw to its roots.

Fruit is an indicator…it’s a teller of the tale of the tree. If you are eating delicious apples from a tree you know you have a healthy apple tree; however, if you are eating shriveled, wormy apples from a tree you know you have a diseased apple tree. Now, you can pick all the fruit you want to in an attempt to get rid of the disease, but if you don’t get to the root of the problem then the problem will continue.

Jesus said,

“So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit” (Matthew 7:17-18)

This is how I see the approach of our governmental leadership to the martyrdom of our nine sisters and brothers. Those killed were Lucero Alcaraz Treven Taylor Anspach, Rebecka Ann Carnes, Quinn Glen Cooper, Kim Saltmarsh Dietz, Lucas Eibel, Jason Dale Johnson, Lawrence Levine, and Sarena Dawn Moore. The President has never acknowledged that these nine gave their lives because they were Christians. He didn’t even hint that the shooter asked the question, “Are you a Christian.” Imagine that, believers in Jesus Christ in the United States of America were targeted and murdered for their faith, and most of the media outlets and the President refused to give that any attention. Instead he decided to take this opportunity to talk passionately about gun control. In my opinion all he wants to do is pick some fruit instead of addressing the heart of the problem.

What is at the very core of this issue is sin. The shooter had a bad heart and that is where we have to start. He had a history of behavior that would lead us to believe he was mentally unstable. I would contend that anybody who murders nine people in one morning is certainly not mentally stable. What we should be addressing is not gun control but the treatment of people’s hearts. People (like this young man) who are hurting, outcast, marginalized, neglected, forgotten and abused need help. Jesus had a special mercy for those suffering the way this young man obviously suffered. I just don’t think he woke up Thursday and decided to be a mass murderer.

So many in our society suffer as this young man did. It is too late to help him. His story is written, but those currently living in desperation can still be helped. We must get to the heart of their problem and show them how God wants to rewrite their story with a beautiful chapter of redemption and hope. If we genuinely want to prevent, or at least curtail, public mass shootings then we will begin to bring the heart problems people have into clearer focus. We will spend more time and dollars on mental illness than stiffer gun laws.

Are we going to go on picking fruits or killing roots?

Grace & Peace,

Is it important to come to God like a child?

“…Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3; cf. Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17)

So, yes, it is not only important but also absolutely necessary to come to God like a child in order to have eternal life. This means we need to have a faith that is simple and uncomplicated. It is an uncluttered faith. It means that we don’t have it all figured out but we know we can take God at His word and trust His promise to adopt us into His family. But the lesson doesn’t end there. Jesus went on to say:

“Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (v. 4).

It seems that Jesus is at least implying how we should live in a complicated world. We not only get to God through a childlike faith, but we also continue throughout our lives following Him like a child. Daily life for a child is humble following. We need our Father to get us through another day. Pride strips trust. When we are following God like a child we are living in simple dependency on God’s Spirit. We are daily depending on Him. We are repeatedly asking God questions like, “What are you doing?” And we are telling Him that we want to follow Him like a child follows their parents in a busy, crowded mall on Black Friday. We are never losing sight of our heavenly Father. We are not wandering off because something shiny and noisy has caught our attention.

Let’s not lose that daily childlike trust in God. My desire is that we don’t become so “mature” in the sense that the awe and wonder of following God like a simple child wears off.

Grace & Peace,

It’s another Monday morning and therefore the beginning of another week; it seems like last Monday was just yesterday. Time moves along so quickly…too quickly. Before we know it Christmas will be here and 2015 will be a memory. Just ask Denise Ford how many days until Christmas. And that means we will struggle with remembering to write 2016 instead of 2015. This frantic passing of time is not something new to our generation. King David was a busy man…

David was a king who was busy being constantly chased by his enemies. Reading his contributions to the Book of Psalms is like watching a Jason Bourne movie. It just seems like David never had time to rest and relax because he went from one fight to another; he went from the frying pan to the fire to the incinerator to the atomic bomb. It was a fast-paced, action-packed life on the run. He wrote,

“O LORD, make me know my end

            And what is the measure of my days;

Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,

            And my lifetime is as nothing before you.

Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!” (Psalm 39:4-5)

Among many things he is saying, “Life is short!”

Why are we waiting to live our lives tomorrow when God fully intends us to live them today? God doesn’t want any of us to get to the end of our lives and feel remorse and regret. And it’s never too late to get moving and do today what God wants us to do. Paul told us to stop living in the past and press on toward what God has called us to in the future (Philippians 3:13-14). What does God want you to do today that will please Him and serve someone else?

Grace & Peace,

Did you feel that “blast” of cool weather last weekend? Refreshing wasn’t it? I know, I know, we are still lined up for some hot days that will remind us we live in the South, and that’s just fine with me. But the first hint of fall or winter or spring or summer is refreshing to me because it is a signal of change, and change reminds me of what God is up to in our lives on a daily basis.

Paul told the Corinthian believers “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). God is after the complete transformation of His children.  Meaning that when we become a part of God’s family we become something new. This change is not necessarily an overnight change but over time change. Change for the believer is inevitable and constant. We never arrive, we are never perfect, we are never what we should be, but we are becoming what He wants us to be.

This transformation takes place starting from the inside, the heart. Our heart is central to who we are, and it is so essential that if we are going to change into the likeness of Jesus Christ then God must have control of our heart. We cannot hold back, we have to be broken to who we are and surrender to God so He can make us into what He wants us to be. We must have a “surrendered brokenness,” otherwise we will never see the need for change; we will go on thinking we are just fine the way we are.

David understood this well. In his classic chapter on repentance he wrote,

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

More than great sacrifice God desires a heart that is brought low to the point of honestly assessing its greatest need. The greatest need is a humble acceptance of our circumstances and a wholehearted, all in, trusting of God’s ways. When He has our hearts in this place then real, lifelong change can take place. And that change will be like a blast of refreshing cold air after a long, hot summer. It will be beautiful.

Grace & Peace,

Why are we raising money for the Janie Chapman State Mission Offering? I think that is a good question that deserves a little investigation and an answer. Here is my attempt to provide information and challenge all of us to sacrifice for this cause.

The first South Carolina State missions offering was established on November 30, 1899 by the Women’s Missionary Union of South Carolina. The first official offering taken was in September 1900 and raised $235. South Carolina women birthed the offering out of a burden for the advancement of the gospel in the state of South Carolina. The first president of the South Carolina WMU was Janie Weston Chapman, a pastor’s wife. Due to her fervent support of and involvement in missions the state offering was named after her in 1937.

The Janie Chapman offering is a state offering, meaning that the monies given will be used in the sate of South Carolina. The uses of the offering are too many to list but include causes such as disaster relief training, assisting struggling churches, helping pastors who want further training, college outreach ministries, summer internships and missionaries, Christmas gifts to South Carolina missionaries wherever they are serving, gifts to missionary kids attending college, and supporting missions to the department of juvenile justice. For a more complete list and information go to http://www.scwmu.org and click on “Janie Chapman Offering.”

I’ve personally known churches and individuals who’ve benefited from the generosity of this sacrifice. It is an offering that keeps the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ burning when it seems darkest. It is a light we desperately need in South Carolina. Through these monies volunteers are helped and mobilized to serve when they couldn’t have done it on their own. The impact of this offering is felt beyond the borders of our state line. For example, when a volunteer is trained through the help of the Janie Chapman offering in disaster relief, when a hurricane devastates the Gulf States they are sent there with our assistance. While there the volunteer is able to begin building bridges that will lead to gospel conversations.

Our part is $1,200. Just imagine what God could do with that money to advance His kingdom. Let’s all sacrificially give above and beyond our regular giving to meet our goal. I can’t help but believe that the money we give will be used to bring someone to Christ.

Grace & Peace,

No one person can know everything that is going on in the lives of everyone in a church. In any given week our sisters and brothers will face overwhelming trials, tremendous joys, crippling temptations, frustrating disappointments, and unbelievable pain. Some people are plugged into some people’s lives while others are plugged into others. We would never imagine one person knowing what is going on in the lives of the wide spectrum of even a small congregation like Calvary.

The entire body intimately concerned about, connected to, and engaged with each other is God’s design for His body. Think about it the way Paul wrote about it,

“…Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)

We are the “every joint” that Paul is talking about that holds the body together. Individually we are the ligaments that God has so sovereignly supplied to keep the body from falling apart, and when we are held together as God has equipped us then we are “working properly” together. We are like a well-oiled machine. But we are more, because we are a living organism that bumps into each other, gets in one another’s way, holds hands, puts arms around, hugs, and touches one another in all kinds of life-changing ways – that, to me, is “working properly.” It may not all be pretty at times, but it does mean we are together trying to work out how we fit together as God designed us.

The result is growth through love. Primarily Paul is talking about the spiritual growing we go through as a church. Working properly together results in taking steps in the right direction spiritually. But I truly believe that a church that operates like this will grow numerically as well. People of all walks of life want to be a part of a body that is working properly together in love. They are not looking for a perfect body; they are looking for a loving body.

We are not alone stranded on a desert island, slugging out our daily existence hoping help will randomly fly by some day. That is a miserable existence. But I wonder how many people feel that way in a typical church…at Calvary?

I do believe God has gifted our little body of believers with a spirit of genuine, loving care for one another. You love well! But I want to challenge all of us as we grow to make sure we don’t fall into the trap of believing somebody else will love the new person. Remember, new people are so easy to love because they come in with a clean slate; they have a clean plate that needs to be filled by someone serving them in love.

Keep Loving Well,

It is through prayer that Calvary will move forward. It is through us crying out to God with all kinds of prayer, with perseverance, for everyone, through the help of the Spirit that the gospel of Jesus Christ will advance in our community. We cannot rely on programs or strategies or our strength to get done what God has called us to do, it is only through God’s help that we will see anything significant take place in this community. Praying is a sign of our desperation that we need God!

And God is answering prayer all the time…

We started in earnest praying once again for God to continue shaping us into a unified people, and I see and sense evidence of that when we gather. It is refreshing to walk, serve and worship among people who are like-minded. I love gathering together with you.

We’ve also been praying for God to meet our financial needs above what we deserve or expect. I continue to see God doing just that. Some weeks we are not hitting it out of the park financially, but I’ve seen God move powerfully in hearts in the last several weeks and have witnessed grand slam giving. Your response to God’s leading in giving has kept us above the water line. Thank you for responding generously to a God who is generous above all.

Finally, we just began praying for ten new families or individuals and God has added the first – welcome home to M.R. & Harriet Jones. It’s wonderful to see God answer so quickly and people respond so faithfully.

“Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:18)

Life is war! Pray that God would prepare us to meet the daily challenges of the battle. Love one another by praying for one another. Pray as the Spirit directs you. Pray without quitting. Always pray depending on the Spirit of God to intercede and interpret your prayers for the glory of God and the benefit of His people.

Grace & Peace,

School is back in session! Most of our students, teachers, administration and staff started classes last Monday, and that means only 175 more days until summer vacation. Some of you are wondering, “How am I ever going to make to the end?” At times it can be overwhelming, think about it…papers to write, papers to grade, parent meetings, quizzes, tests, field trips, game days, snow days, exit exams, flu season, cold season, Christmas break fever, early mornings, late nights, anxiety attacks, band practice, spirit week, prom, career fair, class pets, science fair, driver’s ed, and the list goes on and on and on and…

How do we get to the end? We get to the end one day at a time. Perseverance is king when we look at a school year that begins in mid-August and lasts until the end of May. Quitting is not an option for our kids. We pray them through the tough times, we rejoice with them through the good times, and we walk them through each day giving them the assurance that we’ll always be there for them.

But the great truth of perseverance is not just for our kids, it’s for all of us; we all need it in every area of life. Perseverance isn’t just good for school days, it’s good for friendship, it’s good for worship, it’s good for exercising, it’s good for marriage, it’s good for careers, it’s good for parenting, it’s good for paying our bills, it’s good for taking care of aging relatives, it’s good for praying, and it’s good for walking with Christ.

The Bible has a lot to say on the topic of perseverance.

“…Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1b-3)

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

“…The one who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10:22b)

Imagine where we would be if Jesus quit. In what is God prompting us to persevere?

Grace & Peace,

It was good to have most everybody back on Sunday morning. I know some of you were missing…still on vacation or at family gatherings or whatever. Just know that you were missed. We just aren’t the same when some of the family is missing!

We had another Spirit infused time of prayer Sunday night. It was such a blessing to sing the praises of God through song, Scripture and prayer. The more we do this the more we are expressing our dependence on God, and an utter dependence on God is where we need to be.

“And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31)

And as we are thinking about praying…we are coming up on Vacation Bible School Week (July 5-9). So this is the last opportunity to invite your neighbor kids, family friends, and relatives to come for this exciting week. Each night will start with a snack supper at 5:30. This puts something in the stomach of the kids so they will have all the energy to make it through an action packed Bible School. VBS will kick of at 6:15 pm with a rally in the auditorium. The night will end at 8:45. If you have the time, energy and talent to give, please sign up as soon as possible or call the church office and let Amanda know.

I want to encourage everyone to be praying every day for VBS. This is something we all must do if we expect to see results for the kingdom of God. Pray for the kids’ hearts to be open to the gospel. Pray for the staff that they would clearly show and teach the gospel to the kids. Pray for the safety of everyone. Pray for good weather.

Grace & Peace,

I wonder how many people we casually cross paths with every day. And of those people, I wonder how many of them don’t know Jesus. And of those who don’t know Jesus, I wonder what it would take for us to create a relationship with them. And of those with whom we create a relationship, I wonder how many of them we would eventually be able to tell our story of Jesus. I would like to share just a couple of thoughts this week along these lines…

Life touches life. A person’s life is best changed through another’s life touching them in a significant way. The opportunity to touch someone’s life will come through a variety of ways: crisis, joy, need, fun, business, and vacation. Those are just several ways God brings people across our paths. The key is availability; we must be willing to enter into someone’s life story. We must be prayerfully looking for God-given opportunities to get involved in people’s lives.

Tell them the story of Jesus. The reason we look for God-given opportunities is so that we can build a relational bridge that will lead us to sharing with them how Jesus changed our life. The key to this is intentionality. We must be intentional about the direction of our relationships. Those who are in Christ will naturally want others to be in Christ. Gospel centered people created gospel partners. We’ve found the secret to a joyful life, and it is for the purpose of sharing this joyful life with others that we make friends out of strangers.

We live our lives for the purpose of interjecting our life into someone else’s for the sake of the gospel. We are not haphazardly stumbling through life. We are looking for those moments when God sovereignly places someone across our path so that we can begin a great adventure with them. And this adventure will prayerfully lead them to the cross where their life will never be the same.

Grace & Peace,

Father’s Day should be a great day for families! I realize that with our current culture in which we are immersed and with the onslaught of Satan’s constant attacks against the family, this may not be the case for some reading this. The fabric of many families has been ripped to shreds, but it doesn’t mean we need to lose hope. No, we have all the reason in the world to hope and celebrate Father’s Day. You may be scratching your heads and asking, “How so, Scott?”

There is comfort and encouragement for all who have been saved no matter the sate of fatherhood in our lives. You see, when we turned to God in real faith we were immediately adopted into a heavenly home and were given a new Father who is God Almighty. He is worthy of honoring and celebrating on this Father’s Day! If we think about it, isn’t every Sunday Father’s Day? Follow my logic if you will…

We sing His praises and thank Him for being faithful to us. A believer’s worship is Father-focused, not self-focused. Our worship is audible and visible: we sing, we pray, we speak and we obey. We do all of this for the glory of God.

We bring gifts to Him every week. I’ve never been in a Sunday service when an offering has not been taken. Christians freely and joyfully give. It is not under compulsion or the treat of expulsion that we give, we give because our heavenly Father has given so much to us. Our giving is a response to the generosity of God.

We regularly eat a meal with Him. Granted, it is not a typical Sunday meal, and it is one that He has paid for in full (No, wait, that’s what father’s do on Father’s Day when they go out to eat with their family!). However, the Lord’s Supper is completely different because it remembers the great sacrificial price God paid to rescue us from sin and rebellion. Nonetheless it is a meal that is totally focused on our heavenly Father and His Son, our Brother, Jesus Christ.

So let’s celebrate our earthly fathers this Sunday, and let’s especially give honor and praise to our heavenly Father every week!

Happy Father’s Day,

How do you approach prayer? What attitude is evident when you pray? What are your motives when you pray? What desires, passions, sorrows, joys, and emotions are present when you pray? Prayer is talking to God who has already started the conversation with us. Prayer is an act of obedience toward a loving heavenly Father who spoke first.

I think too often we approach prayer casually, conveniently, cavalierly, selfishly or only as an emergency when we can’t figure things out on our own. We don’t treat our conversations with God as a beautiful time of fellowshipping with and talking to our intimate Father who is in heaven. Prayer should never be an add on or a tag to the end of something (dinner, our day, a close call, etc.). Prayer should be part of the warp and woof of our daily lives.

Let’s look at Jesus as an example of how to approach prayer…

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

He got up, He got away and He got down to business. Jesus didn’t want the noise, the pressing needs or the clamoring crowds of the day to steal His time of talking with the Father. He was very intentional about prayer, and His followers should do the same.

Take time to meditate on what Mark observed about Jesus and ask the Lord to challenge your prayer life. The way we approach prayer says a whole lot about how serious we believe God can handle things in our lives. It reveals our trust in God.

Grace & Peace,

It’s graduation season! Don’t you just love it when this time of year comes around? For most of us graduation is a far distant memory; it’s kinda hard for us to pull that memory from our gray matter, but if we try hard enough I believe we could do it. If I remember rightly, any graduation was an exciting time. I could hardly wait for that day to arrive. In fact, it seemed that the world would end before I would get the opportunity to walk down the isle in my cap and gown to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance. When the day finally arrived it seemed to drag on for eternity; I would think, “Will tonight ever get here so I can finally graduate?” Well, the time did arrive and graduation took place, and if I remember correctly, it lived up to all the hype.

For those who have already graduated from college, and to the two who are graduating from high school (Chris Brundage and Christian Roland), we say, “Congratulations!” We know what you are feeling, we remember the heart pounding excitement this time brings, and we can almost recall the sights, sounds and smells of that night. We are so very proud of you. You’ve been diligent and this is your reward. We love you and always will. Loving you means that we will be there for you when you need us. We are praying for you. We are putting you in the best place – the hands of God. Make no mistake, life will get difficult, and we’ve found out that what got us through the deep waters was knowing that people were praying for us; we’ll do the same for you.

One of the blessings of being a part of a small church is that we have had a small number of graduates through the years. It’s not so overwhelming to remember them and pray for them. They are not completely out of reach of our memory banks. So, as we think of this time of year I want to challenge all of us to begin praying for the 2015 graduates and remember our past graduates through prayer. As we pray for them, ask the Lord to use them as laborers in His great harvest of souls for the kingdom of God.

Grace & Peace,