Summer Spiritual Surge

It's Summer Time! We welcome this time of year because we all need“a change of pace.” Longer days permit us more leisure time after work, more opportunities to hit the lake or the park. Most will take needed vacation time away at a park, beach, or mountains. These are times that families make life-long memories, not to mention the simple benefit of “a change of pace”that can simply rejuvenate us emotionally, physically, and relationally.

Yet, in the midst of all this good, most churches suffer during the summer. Lower attendance, lower offerings, less contact with one another during the week, and sadly, less consistence with our walk in the Spirit.

How can this be a Summer Surge instead of summer slump? To paraphrase Jesus, “what does it gain a family to win great family time, family memories and yet lose their spiritual vitality?”

May I propose two visions for a Summer Surge for our body of believers and for us as individuals?

As a body of believers

1. Be present at the church’s gatherings when you are in town. 

    Everybody will be gone some during the summer and that is encouraged. But when you are in   

    town on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, be in attendance. Don’t begin to “forget” its

    Sunday or Wednesday and drift in your attendance.

 

2. Stay current on your financial giving. 

    Summers are expensive to our families, but the financial needs of the church do not stop, and more

    importantly, your commitment to the Lord to honor Him with your giving can not be substituted

    or another good commitment, even if it is family and fun.

The biggest challenge will be not to forget to give our tithes and offerings either in advance of us being gone or to catch up when we return. You may also give online through our web site. Don’t let our church’s ministries suffer, and more importantly, don’t lose the practice of obeying God.

3. When you are away, catch up spiritually with the church. 

   You can download the Pastor’s sermon on ITunes or check his blog for an audio of the message. I

   am going to blog more this summer. Stay in touch through Facebook, tweeter, texting or email with

   your LIFE group members. Check on them and hold each other accountable. “Life” does not stop 

   during the summer, so reach out to those who are hurting.

As individual believers

Just as important that the corporate body surges, so it is that we individually surge this summer. How can we do this?

 

1. Commit to read a certain portion of Scripture this summer. 

     Take it as a summer goal to read the New Testament, or through a Gospel, or however else God leads. This will give you a marker to know how you are doing.

 

2. Commit to some extra times of prayer and fellowship with God.

      An early morning or during a nice sunset, just connect with God in deep prayer and intimate communication. Just as extended time of being with the family and friends will enhance your relationship with them, so with God.

 

3. Be sensitive to the spiritual condition of persons you may spend extended time with this summer. Pray that you will be in tune to family/friends that may not be walking with the Lord and seek to speak to them while at the beach, the backyard barbeque or at the lake. This will keep you “surging” for the Lord spiritually.

 

4. Commit to read a good Christian book this summer. 

    That one you got for Christmas or a birthday, or a classic. It will do you good.

 

Let’s refuse to give the summer away to mediocrity. Let’s surge this summer, not slump. And when September comes, we’ll be glad we did.

 

(Thanks to a pastor friend for this blog)

It is Finished

IT IS FINISHED

"It is finished!" Blessed statement!
Nothing left for me to do;
Jesus' blood alone provided
Full atonement, life anew

"It is finished!" God revealed it;
Nevermore His wrath to face;
Indwelt now by God's own Spirit;
His alone by sovereign grace

"It is finished!" Love's expression,
In the Son's triumphant shout,
Now, by grace there is acceptance;
In His blood no cause to doubt

"It is finished!" Wondrous statement!
Triumph over guilt and sin
And the birth of life eternal;
Promise of new hope within

It is finished! Blessed utterance
Of the Victor's dying breath;
Through His blood the Son has conquered
Satan, sin, corruption, death

It is finished! My assurance!
Satan's charges cannot stand;
Jesus made eternal payment,
Satisfying God's demand

It is finished! Final victory!
Words that crushed the serpent's head;
Perfect justice, this assuring
Resurrection from the dead.

The Summer Christian

School is almost out and Summertime is coming.  Finally, we will have temps in the 90’s, pools warm enough to swim in, tomatoes turning red on the vine (by the way, the pastor loves tomatoes, green are red) bring on the summer!  When I think about summer my mind sees scenes of fun, vacations, and week-end get-a-ways with the family.  Summer is a great time to relax and refresh for the rest of the year. 

 

Summer is a great time to be a Christian.  Taking the acrostic SUMMER, I would like to challenge you with the characteristics of “Summer” Christians.  A Summer Christian is:

 S = Steady, the summer Christian is constant and trustworthy.  

 U = Uncompromising, the summer Christian is faithful.

I remind you to be faithful in all of your commitments this summer to the Lord.  Tithing is one example of being faithful this summer.   As you plan your summer outings don’t forget to tithe. 

M = Magnify, the summer Christian loves to worship God.

As you choose your summer vacation destination, why not also choose the church that you plan to visit as well.

M = Minister, the summer Christian reaches out to others.

Summer is a great time to be involved in the outreach ministry of your church.

 E = Evangelize,  the summer Christian shares Christ.

Remember, whether you are on the beach or in the mountains, you are a witness for Christ. 

 R = Revival, the summer Christian uses this time to refresh his spirit.

 

             Read a book or come get a cd of a past sermon to listen to again.

 

What kind of Christian will you be this summer?

                                                            Bro. Greg

Can One Person Make a Difference?

 

Can One Person Make a Difference?

Ecclesiastes 9:13–16

13 Also this I came to see as wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me. 14 There was a small city with few men in it and a great king came to it, surrounded it, and constructed large siegeworks against it. 15 But there was found in it a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, "Wisdom is better than strength." But the wisdom of the poor man is despised and his words are not heeded.

 

 

In our overpopulated, impersonal world, it is easy to underestimate the significance of one. With so many people, most of whom seem so much more capable, more gifted, more prosperous, more important than we, who are we to think our part amounts to much? I’m just one person, who cannot make much difference.
That’s the way most folks think. They really do!
Aren’t you glad Patrick Henry didn’t? And Henry Ford? And Martin Luther King, Jr.? And Walt Disney? And Martin Luther? And Winston Churchill? And Jackie Robinson? And Irving Berlin? And Abraham Lincoln? And Charles Wesley? And Dwight L. Moody? And Corrie ten Boom?
“But it’s a different world today,” you say. Back then, there was room for an individual to emerge and stand out in a crowd, but now, there’s no way!”
Wrong. God has always underscored individual involvement . . . still does.

• How many did it take to help the victim who got mugged on the Jericho Road? One Good Samaritan.
• How many were chosen by God to confront Pharaoh and lead the Exodus? One.
• How many sheep got lost and became the object of concern to the shepherd? One.
• ow many were needed to confront adulterous David and bring him to his knees in full repentance? One.
• How many prophets were called to stand before wicked King Ahab and predict a drought? One.
• How many did the Lord use to get the attention of the land of Israel and prepare the way for Messiah? One.

Never underestimate the power of one! And that one just may be you.

(copied from Chuck Swindoll)

Bible vs Cellphone

Sunday Sermon Critique

Let’s do a quick check about the message you heard in church yesterday:

Question 1: What was the pastor’s text?
Question 2: What was the text’s main truth?
Question 3: How were you challenged to be more like Christ from the message?

The purpose of corporate worship is to encounter God through preaching. When we attend worship our goal should be to hear a word from God for the purpose of drawing closer to Him and becoming more like Christ. The message is not to entertain us, it is to glorify God and proclaim His truth… otherwise it is a failure. If the minister proclaims God’s Truth, and you don’t get anything out of the message… there is a problem and it doesn’t lie with the speaker.

God has promised that His Word will not be unfruitful (Is 55:11). If there is a lack of fruit in our mind (“I didn’t get anything out of the sermon today”), it is our fault.

So here are a few suggestions for how to listen to a message…
1. Prior to the message, ask God to reveal His truth to you through prayer.
2. Prior to the message, ask God to speak through the pastor.
3. Be in an attitude of submission to God and His Word as it is proclaimed.
4. Listen for God’s Spirit to speak to you through His Word.
5. After the message, meditate on it and discuss it with others.

(borrowed from a friend)

The
X in Christmas is used like the R in R.C. My given name at birth was Robert Charles, although before I was even taken home from the hospital my parents called me by my initials, R.C., and nobody seems to 

be too scandalized by that.

X can mean so many things. For example, when we want to denote an unknown quantity, we use the symbol X. It can refer to an obscene level of films, something that is X-rated. People seem to express chagrin about seeing Christ's name dropped and replaced by this symbol for an unknown quantity X. Every year you see the signs and the bumper stickers saying, "Put Christ back into Christmas" as a response to this substitution of the letter X for the name of Christ.

There's no X in Christmas

First of all, you have to understand that it is not the letter X that is put into Christmas. We see the English letter X there, but actually what it involves is the first letter of the Greek name for Christ. Christos is the New Testament Greek for Christ. The first letter of the Greek word Christos is transliterated into our alphabet as an X. That X has come through church history to be a shorthand symbol for the name of Christ.

We don't see people protesting the use of the Greek letter theta, which is an O with a line across the middle. We use that as a shorthand abbreviation for God because it is the first letter of the word Theos, the Greek word for God.

X has a long and sacred history

The idea of X as an abbreviation for the name of Christ came into use in our culture with no intent to show any disrespect for Jesus. The church has used the symbol of the fish historically because it is an acronym. Fish in Greek (ichthus) involved the use of the first letters for the Greek phrase "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior." So the early Christians would take the first letter of those words and put those letters together to spell the Greek word for fish. That's how the symbol of the fish became the universal symbol of Christendom. There's a long and sacred history of the use of X to symbolize the name of Christ, and from its origin, it has meant no disrespect.

Adapted from Now, That’s a Good Question! ©1996 by R.C. Sproul. Used by permission of Tyndale.