This weekend, we had several families join the church. I praise God for sending us new people and I pray we will be humble and obedient so God will send more people our way.
Evites are now available on our website for the Passion Experience, which is April 6-10 at 8pm. The scripting gave me some challenges, but I finally got it right. Check it out and send some evites to your friends!
6 kids gave their lives to Christ this weekend in Kids Church! How exciting!
We had 2 people get baptized last weekend and two more this weekend. I have two scheduled for next weekend as well. Praise the Lord.
We hosted a wedding shower yesterday for a good friend of mine, Jayson Fenters. He's getting married to a great girl, Maegan Taylor on April 18th at 2pm in Warren. It was fun remembering old stories from our high school days - some stories are best forgotten. Way to go Jayson.
Kylee has her second t-ball practice tomorrow. She's a good hitter, but fielding is not her thing right now. She wants to use her hand and not her glove to catch the ball - that is when she doesn't watch the ball roll past her. She looks cute in her pink helmet, pink bat, pink glove and White Hall nursing home uniform - that's right. Go WHNH!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The God of Now
There is an important principle that every Christian must understand - God operates in the now.
Moses was chased out of Egypt when he was 40 years old by Pharaoh. He returned at the age of 80 to deliver the people of Israel from Phaorah. In Exodus 3:13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" Moses was simply asking the name he should use when he appeared before the Israelites and Pharaoh. The Egyptians had gods of the moon, sun, crops and fertility that they worshiped. All these “gods” had names. He simply wanted to tell them what name of God to use and what authority he represented.
God said to Moses in verse 14, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "The name “I AM” is present tense. It means God is the God of now. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t God in the past and will not be God in the future. The Bible is clear in Hebrews 13:8 that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” What “I AM” indicates is that God wants to act in your life right now. God power is present to do something in your life at this very moment. You don’t have to wait.
“I AM” communicates God’s transcendence over space and time. “I AM” says that God is the God of the moon, sun, crops and fertility. He is the only God. God is the God of every situation. He is the God of our past, present and future. He is the God of our marriages, life, and dreams. He is the all encompassing God. He is all we will ever need.
In John 8:54-58, Jesus says He is “I AM”. Jesus says “I AM” 7 times in John. He said, “I am the Bread of Life” (Jn. 6:35), “I am the Light of the world” (Jn. 8:12), “I am the Door” (Jn. 10:9), “I am the Good Shepherd” (Jn. 10:11), “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (Jn. 11:25), “I am the Way, Truth and the Life” (Jn. 14:26) and “I am the True Vine” (Jn. 15:1).
“I AM” also reflects an intimate God. “I AM” communicated that God is a personal God. God was a God behind a veil in the Old Testament. Now, because of Jesus, we have a God of relationship. In the Old Testament, only one person (the high priest) once a year could meet with God on behalf of everyone else. Jesus is our High Priest (Hebrews 9) and we have direct access to God every moment of every day, not just once a year. God made a way through Jesus for us to experience the “I AM” right now.
Hebrews 11:6 says “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” We must believe that He IS.
God is as great right now as He will ever be. He is the ultimate everything, ready to do something right now. God is powerful enough to overcome all my enemies, move all my mountains, heal all my diseases, and slay all my giants. He is not just the God of history and prophecy, He is the God of now.
Because you don’t have the promise of tomorrow and you can’t go backwards in time, you must operate in the now. There is no time machine that can move you in the past or in the future. What you do now shapes your future. God can heal you from your past. You have to live in the now, not worried about past or the future.
Are you wasting your “nows” by dwelling in the past or hoping for the future? Living for the future is like walking toward the horizon. The walking never ends and you never arrive. Stop living in the past and future. Live in the now and experience a great relationship with “I AM”.
Moses was chased out of Egypt when he was 40 years old by Pharaoh. He returned at the age of 80 to deliver the people of Israel from Phaorah. In Exodus 3:13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" Moses was simply asking the name he should use when he appeared before the Israelites and Pharaoh. The Egyptians had gods of the moon, sun, crops and fertility that they worshiped. All these “gods” had names. He simply wanted to tell them what name of God to use and what authority he represented.
God said to Moses in verse 14, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "The name “I AM” is present tense. It means God is the God of now. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t God in the past and will not be God in the future. The Bible is clear in Hebrews 13:8 that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” What “I AM” indicates is that God wants to act in your life right now. God power is present to do something in your life at this very moment. You don’t have to wait.
“I AM” communicates God’s transcendence over space and time. “I AM” says that God is the God of the moon, sun, crops and fertility. He is the only God. God is the God of every situation. He is the God of our past, present and future. He is the God of our marriages, life, and dreams. He is the all encompassing God. He is all we will ever need.
In John 8:54-58, Jesus says He is “I AM”. Jesus says “I AM” 7 times in John. He said, “I am the Bread of Life” (Jn. 6:35), “I am the Light of the world” (Jn. 8:12), “I am the Door” (Jn. 10:9), “I am the Good Shepherd” (Jn. 10:11), “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (Jn. 11:25), “I am the Way, Truth and the Life” (Jn. 14:26) and “I am the True Vine” (Jn. 15:1).
“I AM” also reflects an intimate God. “I AM” communicated that God is a personal God. God was a God behind a veil in the Old Testament. Now, because of Jesus, we have a God of relationship. In the Old Testament, only one person (the high priest) once a year could meet with God on behalf of everyone else. Jesus is our High Priest (Hebrews 9) and we have direct access to God every moment of every day, not just once a year. God made a way through Jesus for us to experience the “I AM” right now.
Hebrews 11:6 says “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” We must believe that He IS.
God is as great right now as He will ever be. He is the ultimate everything, ready to do something right now. God is powerful enough to overcome all my enemies, move all my mountains, heal all my diseases, and slay all my giants. He is not just the God of history and prophecy, He is the God of now.
Because you don’t have the promise of tomorrow and you can’t go backwards in time, you must operate in the now. There is no time machine that can move you in the past or in the future. What you do now shapes your future. God can heal you from your past. You have to live in the now, not worried about past or the future.
Are you wasting your “nows” by dwelling in the past or hoping for the future? Living for the future is like walking toward the horizon. The walking never ends and you never arrive. Stop living in the past and future. Live in the now and experience a great relationship with “I AM”.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
On a personal note...
The men's encounter retreat last weekend was awesome! 70 men had a great time growing in the Lord and 2 guys gave their lives to Christ.
Congratulations to our AWANA kids for coming in 1st place in the regional AWANA GAMES! They will go to Beebe April 4th to compete in the State AWANA Games.
My family has been on vacation this past week and we had a wonderful time together. I worked really hard, trying not to use email, internet, phones, texting, or anything else that had to do with work. That meant a lot to my wife and my kids to give them my undivided attention and not be thinking about the next project, outreach or event at church.
I'm still working out, but not as much I would like. Although, I did workout twice this week while on vacation - well, three times if you count the workout I did when I used my kids as the weights. That was fun, but not really a workout.
I'm looking forward to the Men's Meeting this Sunday night at church. I can't wait to see how God will grow the men of our church.
My pastor told me we passed the quarterly numeric goals for our Life Groups a month early!
I couldn't believe we doubled our church website traffic since the first of the year! We had 70,000 hits in January, 70,000 in February and are on target to have 100,000 hits in March! God is up to something!
Our Easter Passion Experience is scheduled for April 6-10 and we are expecting 10,000 visitors this year! I can hardly wait as people pour in to experience what Christ has done for them.
Congratulations to our AWANA kids for coming in 1st place in the regional AWANA GAMES! They will go to Beebe April 4th to compete in the State AWANA Games.
My family has been on vacation this past week and we had a wonderful time together. I worked really hard, trying not to use email, internet, phones, texting, or anything else that had to do with work. That meant a lot to my wife and my kids to give them my undivided attention and not be thinking about the next project, outreach or event at church.
I'm still working out, but not as much I would like. Although, I did workout twice this week while on vacation - well, three times if you count the workout I did when I used my kids as the weights. That was fun, but not really a workout.
I'm looking forward to the Men's Meeting this Sunday night at church. I can't wait to see how God will grow the men of our church.
My pastor told me we passed the quarterly numeric goals for our Life Groups a month early!
I couldn't believe we doubled our church website traffic since the first of the year! We had 70,000 hits in January, 70,000 in February and are on target to have 100,000 hits in March! God is up to something!
Our Easter Passion Experience is scheduled for April 6-10 and we are expecting 10,000 visitors this year! I can hardly wait as people pour in to experience what Christ has done for them.
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