We received a good reminder this week of how much of a difference it makes in the world when someone takes the time to encourage and believe in someone else. As I look back on my life, I remember the coaches, teachers, scoutmasters, and my mom and dad who gave me so much encouragement and support that helped me to achieve great successes in life. There’s no doubt that as I left home to start college and even as I left college to continue my career, that the continued encouragement and support I receive from so many has given me the courage to trust in God, step out, and live life.
While I am so grateful for those who encouraged me I’m also reminded that there are others now, young and old, who may not have those people in their life and who God has placed in my life so that I can believe in them. Whether it’s a one time kind word or helping hand, or a more invested relationship we can change the world by taking the time to let someone know that you believe he or she has what it takes to do great things in life.
Yesterday at Grace Community Church was amazing! Families dedicating children to the Lord and 5 adults confessing their commitment to Jesus through Baptism! As the church worshiped and celebrated new life the atmosphere in the room was electric…..or maybe the spirit was moving…..I would say the morning was incredibly life-giving!
It’s been said by many and I agree, there is nothing more beautiful or powerful than the local church! I am so humbled, blessed, and excited to be a part of Grace Community Church. I am believing God today for “one more”.
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 6:5-7
Many people are walking too close to the line when comes to sexual sin. We all need “Moral Margin” in our life. If you could not be with us at Grace yesterday you can watch the message at the link below. Also, don’t forget to talk it over this week. You can find the Talk It Over sheets to the right of the message as a PDF file.
http://findinggrace.com/messages/
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Church Online - pray for our online team as we lead this Wednesday night at 10pm. This weeks topic should make for some interesting conversations.
Super Bowl Party - This coming Sunday bring your favorite party food and a drink to share. We will begin to gather around 4:30pm. This is a great opportunity to invite a friend to join you at Grace.
One of my favorite books that I read last year was “Dangerous Wonder” by the late Michael Yaconelli.
This book helped me to see the wonder and absolute joy of my relationship with God, and discover childlike faith.It also made me examine areas of my life.
Michael writes about four obstacles that get in the way of adults living a childlike faith.
One of those is “The obstacle of the banal: we become so immersed in our culture and in the material needs and wants of life, that we fail to live in abject dependence on God for every breath of air and every bite of bread.”
The quote from the book that has stuck with me most is; “When our possessions possess us- imprison us- risk and adventure become impossible.”Wow, he is talking about financial margin and all my stuff.This quote drove a deep desire to develop a plan that would pay off all of my family’s debt, including our mortgage.That way Terry and I will have major margin in our finances, and be ready for whatever adventure God has for us.That excites me!!We are not there yet, but I can already imagine the freedom that will bring.
Are you at a place where your stuff is imprisoning you?If God were to present a risk or adventure to you today, would you decline because of your stuff or would you be free to take the leap of faith He is asking?
This past week’s message, Margin- Scheduling Margin, was major convicting for me.For much of my adult life, I have been the “Queen of Busy”.I am not sure why, but often if I am not busy doing, I feel as though I am not being productive. Sometimes I subconsciously act or feel like the world would probably fall apart if I am unproductive for an hour or morning or even a day.Wow!How prideful and arrogant is that statement? I act like the God of The Universe; Creator of Everything can’t handle things while I take a time out and rest.Are there any other “Kings or Queens of Busy” out there?
As I reflect on this past decade of my life, I realize that God has been working on getting rid of the busyness, so that I can have time for the important stuff.It has not been easy, and many of the decisions that were about time, were also about money.
What has helped most in making major changes is seeking God’s wisdom before making changes or committing to something else.Searching scripture for guidance, seeking wise counsel and just spending time with God are tools that have worked well.
One thing I learned early in the business world was that if someone wanted my answer immediately without time to review all the information, saying “No” was the wisest answer.Slowly, I am learning to apply that principle to my everyday life.
I love the simple questioned posed in this week’s message; “In light of _____, is it wise?”Fill in the blank with whatever applies; your family situation, your health, your finances, whatever the important things are in your life.Most likely, you can answer that question without thinking twice.
If not, I highly recommend getting your nose in the bible, seeking wise counsel and spending some time seeking God’s wisdom.
James 3:17says But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
Since Craig’s sermon this past Sunday, have you been thinking about creating margin in your life?One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was “Put God First”.I have found that applies to all areas of my life, especially in a practical sense to my daily schedule.Non-morning people will hate this next part.It is not easy and I am not always successful, but when I get up 15-30 minutes early and devote time to reading my bible and actually asking God to guide my day, a cool thing happens.He actually does!How great is that!
In Mark 1:35, we see that Jesus found time early to be with His Father early in the morning.
““Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
This early morning environment seems to be the time when I am able to “Be Still” before God.
What about you?What environment works best for you to be still before God?Are you creating margin so that God does not get squeezed out of your daily schedule?
A couple of Sundays ago we were challenged to think about what “one thing” we feel that God has for us to do. At first I felt like this was just a really good effort at filling a week with a first of the year sermon before Craig launched into the Margin series that I knew he was very excited about. I mean you hear so many things at the first of the year about resolutions and making changes and really examining your life. And I know I’ve had so many years where all of that examining didn’t necessarily add up to a whole lot of change throughout the year, so hear was just another talk about the same old topics you expect to hear at the New Year…or was it?
You see there was one key difference in this talk and that was the reminder to set your mind on the things that God has for you to do. To seek his will for what one thing you would need to focus on so that all other things seem to fall in line behind it. This dove-tailed beautifully into Margin as we were reminded that we can be so distracted by many good things that we lose sight of the one best thing. By doing less things and taking time to really seek God’s direction before moving, we reduce a lot of wasted effort chasing hunches about his will.
So my one thing is to build more consistency in my practice of reading his word. Which has been greatly helped with my reading plan from youversion.com. I am trusting in the Lord that by doing this one simple thing, he will bless my path in 2010 and many years to come. What is your one thing this year? How did you figure that out?
Sunday, December 28 is Your Choice Sunday. Neither Craig nor Jerris will be speaking that Sunday, so you get to help choose what message we hear that Sunday. We can experience one of the messages we skipped this year or we can have a rerun of a popular one that we’d like to revisit. It’s Your Choice.
Yesterday at Grace we mentioned the 3 Month Tithing Challenge. In Malachi 3:8-10, God asks us to literally test Him in regards to tithing. That’s the idea with the 3 Month Tithing Challenge — test out tithing for 3 months and if you aren’t convinced of God’s faithfulness to bless your life as a result of your obedience to His Word, we’ll refund your money. It’s that simple.
To register for the 3 Month Tithing Challenge download the form linked below and return it to Grace:
Currently 1480 churches representing 830,000 people in 27 countries are standing together sharing their One Prayer for the church. This coming weekend is the official weekend we will be receiving an offering (in addition to our regular offering). Together we will support four international organizations in planting 500 new churches in Cambodia, India, Sudan, and China! The local church is the hope of the world, and these churches will be able to make a sustainable, lasting and eternal impact on these four strategic regions. The OnePrayer network explored many great causes and organizations that we could collectively support, but the vision of local churches from around the world uniting to invest in planting churches was the most synergistic with the vision of One Prayer.
100% of all funds collected for the One Prayer offering will be distributed to four international church planting organizations. These organizations will plant 500 new churches in the geographical regions of Cambodia, India, Sudan, and China.
