New Sermon Series starting 3/7/10

We’ve all done dumb stuff in our lives. We all have regrets. Yet none of us plans to mess up our lives. Why, then, does it keep happening?

Life doesn’t have to be that way. You can fool-proof your life.  God’s promise and pattern is for something better.

This series probes for honesty —it pushes us to open our eyes to reality and helps us expose the little (and big) self-deceptions we have.

Prepare yourself.

You are about to be introduced to a single question that will revolutionize the way you make decisions.

Sundays @ 10:00 am, March 7, 14, 21, 28th

Text:   Deuteronomy 1                                                               Date: 2/15/10

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Scripture:  Take time reading and allow God to speak to you. Look for a verse from the passage that particularly spoke to you and write it in your journal.

Deuteronomy 1:8-13  ⁸ See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers– to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob– and to their descendants after them.”  ⁹ At that time I said to you, “You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone.  ¹⁰ The LORD your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as many as the stars in the sky.  ¹¹ May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!  ¹² But how can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself?  ¹³ Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.”

Observation:  What do you think God is saying to you in this scripture? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal Jesus to you. Paraphrase and write this scripture down in your own words in your journal.

Moses remembers how worn out he became trying to manage everything, every dispute, every problem, all direction, planning and vision, it all came from him.  His father-in-law, Jethro rebuked him eventually.  He exhorted him to select good men from among the families and teach them and train them in the laws and show them how to live so that they may help manage God’s people well (Ex 18:20).    

If God’s law…the Ten Commandments, the rules and regulations for living were followed these people would stand out in the world around them.  Then…“the nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.  ³ You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God” (Isaiah 62:2-3). 

They were the instrument God was forming.  They were His plan to draw the nations back.  They were to point the way.  They were instrumental in the salvation of all nations. 

Application:  Personalize what you have read, by asking yourself how it applies to your life right now. Write how this scripture can apply to you today.

 We are at a critical place in our church community.  We are accepting membership in our church and asking those who sign on as members to appoint leaders from among them who are qualified and willing to serve the people they are committed to. 

 One of the hopes we all have is growing as an influence in our community; growing to the point that we embrace a passion to joyfully display His supreme excellence in all spheres of life.  I believe that the local church (with Christ as the head) is the hope of the world.  When we manage things well in the church God is glorified in our community. 

 Prayer:  This can be as simple as asking God to help you use this scripture, or it may be a greater insight on what He may be revealing to you. Remember, prayer is a two way conversation, so be sure to listen to what God has to say and journal about it. 

 Lord, help us to unite in the leadership of your people.  Call those leaders, point them out to us, who desire to be a part of changing lives, our communities, and the world through the local church.

High Point is our midweek service for adults.

We have been going through a topical Bible study built around some challenging videos produced by a church in MI.  They are topics we have all thought about and it gives us a safe place to explore what the Scriptures say and where we will stand on some important issues in our world. 

Come on out and dig deep with us into God’s incredible word…grow in ways you’ve never imagined!

My first Soap devo this morning…it was really fruitful.  I hope some of you can share your reflections or experiences with with the Word also.  I look forward to them…blessings. 

Scripture:  Take time reading and allow God to speak to you. Look for a verse from the passage that particularly spoke to you and write it in your journal.

 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 ”Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp 3 Pharaoh will think, `The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” So the Israelites did this.

Observation:  What do you think God is saying to you in this scripture? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal Jesus to you. Paraphrase and write this scripture down in your own words in your journal.

Sometimes God allows things to happen to us and the primary purpose of those happenings is not to reveal Himself to us but to our adversaries, enemies, or neighbors.  It is God’s primary purpose to fulfill His grand design.  The world through His eyes would be more than we can comprehend.   We experience the assault, the attack, the setback and it challenges our faith, forces us to “cry out” to God.  That is how we see it; that is our summary of the experience through our eyes.  But it is not God’s perspective.  In this passage the stated intent was to reveal Himself to the Egyptians.  Every plague taught the Israelites, but it also included the Egyptians.   God was punishing the pride and hard-heartedness of Pharaoh; but at any time any Egyptian, steeped in idolatry, could have believed, covered their doorposts in the blood of a lamb and been spared the plague.  I can’t help but think that there were Egyptians who were spared, who turned, who believed.   It is a story of God reaching out ; expanding His presence and influence, using His people to accomplish His purposes. 

Application:  Personalize what you have read, by asking yourself how it applies to your life right now. Write how this scripture can apply to you today.

I think that we are all tempted to believe that the trials we face are more random than precisely planned.

This passage has challenged me to think outside of my life.  It has challenged me to ask for knowledge concerning the bigger picture.  It seems that only Moses knew, was privy to the bigger picture.  He was the only one asking, talking to God on behalf of his people.  I don’t want to respond like the simple uninformed masses.  I want to meet with God in my adversities and understand all that He hopes to accomplish in and through my life and service.  I want to be a willing participant not a reactionary uninvolved benefactor.   I want to grow from a babe in Christ to a Servant of the Most High God. 

Prayer:  This can be as simple as asking God to help you use this scripture, or it may be a greater insight on what He may be revealing to you. Remember, prayer is a two way conversation, so be sure to listen to what God has to say and journal about it. 

I think my application turned into my prayer.   In this devotion it definitely encapsulates what I want to pray.

Heavenly Father, Please open my eyes to the potential involved in every relationship with the world around me.  Help me begin to believe once again that You are involved in every aspect of our world.  Help me remember the elusive reality that the world is not revolving around me, it is all about you and what you are doing.

Please join us as we gather to lift the needs of the church before God.  We are specifically asking people to commit to joining with us in prayer and fasting for the leadership, direction, and ministry of our church.  As a new community of believers we want to be in step with will of God.  Prayer is the key to hearing clearly, opening new doors, and spiritual strength and power for ministry

We will be meeting March 10th (Wed)  and 12th (Fri) @ 6:30pm.

Click for more info

CrossPoint is a twenty-something ministry focusing on the challenges and changes young adults experience as they step away from home and begin discovering their unique strengths, gifts and calling as Christians. It is a group that gathers to examine life in light of the scriptures and looks to apply that ancient wisdom to our lives in our contemporary setting. Please join us.

CrossPoint meets at 8:00 pm the first and third Saturdays of each month during the school year at Marc and Ginger Hoppa’s home.    For more information please call (715)505-0366 or email revrand@charter.net.

How did He do it? Where is it? The prophets declared it, the angels pronounced it and Christ, himself admits it. So where is it? Where is the peace He brought 200 years ago?

One way Christ opens the door for peace is with His Father. He offers us peace with God. Romans 8:7 says, “The sinful mind is at war with God. It does not obey God’s law. It can’t.” Some of us have still not embraced the fact that our rebelious natures aggressively oppose God and His laws. Paul also states in Romans that “the wages of sin are death but that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus” (Ro 8:23).

Christ came to bring peace in our world by reestablishing our relationship with the creator of this world.

Once that happens Christ calls us to live in peace with one another (Ro 12:18). Christ destroys the walls of hostility and seperation between us. He put our hatred to death on that cross (Eph 2:14-18). Christ makes peacce possible with one another.

The third way Christ brings the potential of peace is “peace within.” After I am living in right relationship with the creator and his creation I am fully free to live in a way that manifests the Kingdom of God, here on earth, as it is in heaven.

Jesus makes it possible for us to live in such a way that people see glimpses of the kingdom of heaven. We are allowed the joy of working once again with God, under His command, as subjects of His realm. And when we do that our hearts find peace like it was meant to be.

When those angels sang “peace on earth” they knew what they were saying. Peace has arrived. Many have not seen or heard. Only those who have seen it and experienced it can share it.

Where is it? Where is this peace the Angels proclaimed in Luke chapter two? And the Prophet predicted in Isaiah chapter 9? I can’t ignore the irony of that proclamation with the fact that I have been separated from my family for a year on account of war. As a matter of fact I can’t think of one major continent where wars and rumors of wars are not on the cover of the newspapers.

In Jesus day and age, the most powerful man on the planet declared peace. The Roman Emporer declared “The Peace of Rome” to everything under his vast and all encompassing control. But even then people noticed the limits of such a proclamation. One man, Epictitus, a Roman philosopher of the first century, wrote in response to the Emperor’s proclamation…

“While the emperor may declare peace from war on land and sea, he is unable to give us peace from our passions, or peace from loneliness and grief. He does not give peace from greed and envy. He cannot give peace of heart, inwardly, which is what man yearns for more than even outward peace”.

It has not gotten better over time. In our day and age it is perhaps even more confusing, the search for peace seems to have intensified.

Today, peace is pedaled on every corner in the market place. Insurance companies sell peace of mind, mattress companies pitch a peaceful nights rest. Makers of burglar alarms promise you a peaceful home. Therapists want to help you discover it and pharmacologists claim to have manufactured it in bottles.

In every place and in every time we can measure and mark the lack of peace that domiates the human story.

So my question, our question, the world’s question is, “How has this child brought peace on earth?” How would you answer that to your friends and family who do not know?

The world is becoming increasingly cynical toward us, Our Lord, and our faith. Can you give an answer for the hope at is in you? What do the scriptures reveal about this precious gift of peace brought to us by our Savior?

You think about that with me…I’ll continue this in the next blog