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Faith Can Be Difficult

1/30/2013

I hear people question God and why things happen that are so horrible. I see the news lately and the number of wrecks that have taken lives, many of them young lives, all in the big Country. I see pain and suffering around the world. I experience pain in my own life.
Being honest, there are times that I am left walking through a valley questioning God and struggling with my faith. I pray, I read Scripture, I cry out to God, and I am left like the Psalmist, wondering where God is in the midst of my trouble (Psalm 4).
There are numerous Christians who will say that I should never question God. God does not answer to us, we answer to God. These people have a right to their opinions, but life happens, pain happens, troubles happen, and we are left to decide how we must respond.
God is big enough to take my questions, to calm my fears, to speak peace into my life. That does not mean I will not walk through difficult times where my faith is weak. Many great heroes of the faith experienced doubts and fears. The test is being able to allow God to lead us through our times of struggle. The beauty of having a relationship with God is that we can hopefully sing with the Psalmist at the end of Psalm 4, "In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety."
We all struggle, we all lack faith at some point or another; the key is to realize that at the end of the day, the only one big enough to bring us through is the God who created us and loves us.

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Renovatus

1/22/2013

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Renovatus. A Latin word meaning "to make new." A word from which we get our word renovate. Webster defines renovate as "restoring to life, vigor, activity." Renovatus.
Looking at the picture on the left, we see the whole of the Biblical narrative. The house on the left was once a new creation, probably filled with energy and excitement from the family living there; however, over time, the house was allowed to decompose, to be left to its own care and demise. Our lives are the same, we were created to be such an amazing and wonderful part of Creation, but as we allow sin to take over our lives, we become rundown and decompose to something less than what we are created for.
Then comes renovatus. Jesus enters in and makes us new, restores us to life. We are continually being transformed to a new way of life: a life that we were originally created for. We look like the house on the right: clean and ready to experience the abundant life, once again.
If we are not careful, we can let sin run us down again and we feel like we are the house on the left and that we are no longer worth anything. The Good News is that once we are saved by Jesus, we have the opportunity to allow him to daily renovate us and keep us fresh and full of the abundant life. We pray, read Scripture, fellowship with other Christians, and experience life together, all the while living out what God has created to be.
We are not perfect and the renovation is ongoing, but with Jesus working in and through us, we look more like the Body of Christ every day. What is Jesus wanting to renovate in your life? Are you allowing him to renovate you so that you can experience the abundant life that he has for you?

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all that i am...all that i have

1/16/2013

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          I wonder sometimes what God sees when looking at me. Do I live my life in such a way that all that I am and all that I have is used to glorify God? The answer is probably not (Read: I know I don't, but that is a difficult thing to admit in light of a loving and gracious God of redemption).
          I see the example of Jesus and I know what I should do, but that does not always mean I make the right choice. Confessing that I am a human and only Jesus is perfect is not enough, because Jesus calls us to be perfect like him. Too often, I let myself slide and give myself grace when it comes to me not living up to Christ's expectations when I should strive for living as Jesus and allow him to show me grace when I fail.
          The question remains as to how do I live so that all that I am and all that I have is used to glorify God. Here are some simple suggestions that are not easy to follow, but I need to strive to follow:
               1.) Read God's Word more...quit making excuses to not read.
               2.) Pray more as an individual and in community...Francis Chan has helped me understand
this truth more through his BASIC Series.
               3.) Do not make God a priority at the top of my list, but allow God to be in and through and
the creator of my priorities.
               4.) Love more...The Christian life is too full of those who want to judge (the exact opposite of
                           Jesus' call for us), the world needs more love from Christians.
               5.) Realize that in everything, there is a way to honor God, even in buying clothes.
                            www.justcausetees.net is a great example of this principle. They make cool shirts that
when purchased help those in need. Something as simple as buying a shirt will help
change lives.
          I am a simple person, who loves an awesome God, my goal is to be more like the God I serve everyday. I welcome your thoughts and suggestions as we move through this journey together.

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Where is your focus?

1/10/2013

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Have you ever noticed that often it seems that the thing you are trying to give your attention to ... to focus on ... gets pushed to the background because of other things fighting for your attention? Whether those things be of a personal nature, a career issue, etc., those distractions can be, at the least an annoyance, and at the most devastating. It's not even that some of the things that demand our attention aren't important ... it is simply that they serve to sometimes get us off task. When we think of this in a spiritual way, we can easily understand how this works. How many times have we desired to follow God more obediently ... to serve more enthusiastically ... to share more openly the gospel of Jesus with those around us who are hurting or lonely? And how quickly does it seem that we wake up to realize that those intentions have been "lost" in the clutter of living?
In Philippians 3:14, Paul uses the familiar image of a runner in a race to remind us of the need to remain focused on the things of God ... "forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Jesus Christ, is calling us." (NLT)
Did you catch that? We have to FORGET the past AND LOOK FORWARD ... to win the race! How about it? Anything causing you to lose focus? How about our church as a whole? Let's encourage one another to actually DO something about it! Let's FORGET the PAST and LOOK FORWARD to the future that God has in store for us here in Sweetwater!

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Better Together

1/4/2013

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If you live on the north side of Sweetwater, or look up into the sky almost any evening, you probably hear quite a ruckus. As your eyes focus on the clamor from above you probably see a picture like this one. I don't know if the cranes are just passing through for the winter, or if they are staying at the Sweetwater Country Club for the winter, but either way, I always have to stop and admire the sight of so many birds flying in formation and moving on with such ease towards their destination.
I think the cranes are a perfect metaphor for what the church should be like. We work together, not worrying about anything, but our destination and that we are moving forward, together, in unity. They work together towards a common goal and do it without fighting, pushing each other around, or worrying about self. In doing so, they attain their goal and are "Better Together." Our prayer for 2013 should be that we are "Better Together," moving forward for the Kingdom of God.

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Faith Can Be Difficult

Renovatus

all that i am...all that i have

Where is your focus?

Better Together

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