Live piano worship response 08-05-12 second service

Live worship piano postlude 08-05-12 First Service

Live Piano Postlude worship 07-29-12

Live Postlude piano 07-22-12

Live worship response 07-15-12

Live Piano Postlude 07-01-12

Guard Your Heart

I was blessed to be able to share this message the Sunday following a great week of VBS - so this message springboards off of VBS week and is VBS for adults.  Our focus for VBS for the kids was Trust God, and sometime for adults those are words easier spoken than lived.  Sometimes our biggest challenge as adults is that we do not always know what we see.  You can listen to the message with the player in this post.  Thanks for listening.

Freedom Sunday

I am not for sale, you are not for sale, no one should be for sale - everyone is invited to help end slavery in our lifetime.  This Sunday Feb 26 is Freedom Sunday. 

Visit http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ for information on how you can help end slavery.

True & False Repentance

Art by Kyle Reed

Why do I keep making the same mistakes?  In Mark 1:15 we read that we are to repent and believe. There has unfortunately been too much 'junk mail' style evangelism that tells us 'we may already be a winner' while it fails to mention anything about the cost, the requirement of repentance and believing. Junk mail style evangelism tells us that 'God loves you just the way you are', but the truth is that God loves us too much to leave us that way, in the bondage of sin that separates us from Him. That is why we are to repent and believe.

What is the difference between true and false repentance? When the holiness of God has been diminished, there appears to be no need for more than just an apology to God for our occasional sin. This diminished holiness causes true turning back to God to not be a consideration, for if we have no standard target to aim for we can never really miss –        'we may already be a winner'.

Pastor Dave has taught that “repentance is confession with legs”, it is sorrow with an intent to change direction. False repentance has no standard, and there is a loss of purity and holiness. In false repentance there is an elimination of personal guilt by our renaming what God calls sin into something that man calls normal. True repentance includes a changing of ones mind about God, about ourselves and about sin. True repentance senses an inner conviction of a sin, a sin that is becoming less desirable as our behaviors change. May we be a people who repent and believe.

As we consider true and false repentance let's spend some time looking to the Word to pursue all that repentance includes;

1 Kings 8:47 acknowledgement of guilt and personal responsibility

2 Chronicles 32:26 the slaughter of pride

Job 42:6 despising oneself

Jeremiah 5:3 humility under correction

Jeremiah 31:19 deep sorrow over the wrong we have done

Ezekiel 14:6 renunciation of past sins

Ezekiel 18:31; 36:26 receiving a new heart and spirit

Courageous Encouragement

I was blessed to be able to share in our sermon series 'A Life Of Courage' the message 'Courageous Encouragement'.  This was a challenging study for me and I trust God will challenge you also as we consider the source and the power of our words

Holiness and Sanctification part 2

photo - Eric Wing

One term that holds as much tension as any other when we speak of holiness and sanctification is the term Wesley used, Christian perfection. Just the word perfection can cause reactionary definitions to flow freely. Wesley describes Christian Perfection this way, “The loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. This implies, that no wrong temper, none contrary to love, remains in the soul; and that all the thoughts, words and actions, are governed by pure love.”. Christian perfection is a descriptor of the possibility that our intention to love God and others could be made perfect by God's grace. Christian perfection is about our intent to love, it is not at all about being a superior Christian, or in claiming spiritual infallibility. “Christian perfection is not immunity from life's problems. . . Christian perfection is not a vaccination against reality.” (Dr. Steve Harper). Christian perfection speaks of a persons single intention and purpose in life being, to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and to love their neighbor as themselves. (Matthew 22).

How we come to define sin, purity, and every other term attached to holiness will be directly impacted with how we come to define the term Christian perfection. We need to teach and preach in this tension between the words that describe holiness so that others may know the fullness of a holy life beyond the cultural definition of a few words. This hard work in redefining our thoughts and expectations of what a holy life could and should be on both a personal and a corporate level are not only worth the effort and struggle, they are indeed the goal of God for all of His children. After the topic of salvation few others hold as much possibility for life altering transformation than the topic and teaching of holiness and sanctification. I used to think holiness was an unpopular subject due to the tension and conflict of the terminology, but as God has been growing me, I now believe it to be an unpopular subject because many do not know the astounding blessings that are made available in all of our lives if we would partner with the amazing work of God's grace in our personal sanctification.