Pastor’s Messages (Page 20)
New Sermon Series: Being Honest with God: The Psalms
THIS WEEKEND: 5-24-20 How Long Lord? Psalm 13:1-6 During times of extreme hardship and suffering, is when our faith is put to the test. Do we really believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior or are we just reciting platitudes of a slightly religious world view? The Corona-virus has crashed into our world, and it reveals a plethora of world views that can’t answer the problem of suffering and death. So, let’s deal with it. Join us as we…
Prayer Walk!
What fantastic weather we are having. What better way of getting some exercise and being able to pray for your community. Check out Pastors latest prayer walk! Hope this encourages you to get outside this week as we stay Safe at Home.
God Hasn’t Changed!
God Hasn’t Changed! 1 Peter 1:24-25 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.” It’s Wednesday of Holy Week, but in many ways if feels like any other evening before a regular Thursday. This year there were no palm branches being passed out by the children last Sunday. No shouts in the sanctuary of “Blessed…
Struggling With A New Perspective
2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” My oldest son is a certified lifeguard. He told me, the right way to save someone who is drowning in the ocean is to wait for them to stop trying to save themselves. When they stop flailing, put your arm around them from the back and…
Tall Trees, Deep Roots Acts 1-4
Tall Trees, Deep Roots Acts 1-4 My wife and I were missionaries in Uganda for six years. While there we went to the Bwindi Impenetrable forest in Southwest Uganda to see the mountain gorillas. The Park their boarders the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is 124 square miles. There are 163 species of trees that house and protect 214 bird species, 129 mammal species, and 202 butterfly species. These tall trees have deep roots and are able stand despite…
A Life of Purpose (Series)
A Life of Purpose (Series) 2 Corinthians 5:16-18 What is your purpose in Life? Do you know? How do you decide what’s best from what is good? Is your joy dependent on things going the way you planned? Do you wish your real life was as exciting as your virtual life on new media? In a world sinking in medicated feeling of confusion, rejection and fear God allows us behind the curtain to discover the joy, pleasure and peace…
Developing the discipline of praying for others Elder Homer Haynes
Pray for others too: Recently, as I contemplated my prayer needs, God spoke through the confusion I was experiencing: What about the needs of others? Don’t forget to petition God the Father for the needs of others. Immediately I remembered my numerous prayer lists, the members of my family, church family, single parents, singles, couples, widows, orphans, co-workers, prisoners, and other acquaintances. I see the names, and the faces, I see the written, and spoken prayer requests. And in the…
Dance before the Lord?
Dance before the Lord? 2 Samuel 6:14 And David danced before the Lord with all his might. I’ve always loved to dance. I was a teenager in the 80’s when there were no rules to dancing. My friends and I would form a circle on the dance floor and take turns showing our best moves in the middle of our boogie arena. With every new move that was shared we would cheer with delight. Thirty years later,…
Who is Jesus…..Really??
Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, writes in response to some false and destructive teachings on the gospel message being spread in the early years of Christianity. These were not unique to that time, however, for we are faced with similar distortions today. Interestingly Paul never specifically identifies or confronts the actual false messages, but simply presents Christ as the CENTER of our faith; the very image of God, the Creator, the sustainer of all things, the fullness of…
Matthew 6:12 Devotion
CBF Elder Devotion Matthew 6:12 “Forgive us our trespasses as forgive those who have trespassed against us. As part of the “Lord’s Prayer”, many of us may mention this passage almost automatically and not give much thought to what it actually says. If we pay some attention on what we are really asking God here, however, at best it is puzzling and at worst is frightening. Consider; I Jn 1:8-9 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves…
Ramblings about the Lord’s Prayer
ELDER DEVOTIONAL… As I mature in Christ, the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-4 increases in impact to my daily life. For example, I was taught the Lord’s Prayer in Sunday school as a little boy. I learned to blast through the prayer in record time, proud of the accomplishment. Nonetheless, I didn’t know that the Lord’s Prayer was part of scripture, located in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-4. When I joined the Catholic Church, the prayer’s relationship…
“We Were Made in God’s Image”
ELDER DEVOTION “We Were Made in God’s Image” Malachi 3:3 The Setting: Malachi was written about 100 years after the Jews had been restored to their homeland as part of the Persian Empire, and was probably the last prophet of the OT era. Although the Jews had been allowed to return from exile and rebuild the temple, several discouraging factors brought about a general religious malaise in their nation: (1) their land remained but a small province in the backwaters…
Loving God Together In An Ungodly World
The church in Corinth was really hurting. The Christians of Corinth were surrounded by temptation and immorality, just like we are today. Corinth was the, Las Vegas of its day. Pleasure and philosophy were worshiped above all. Instead of impacting this lost city with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the city was influencing the church. Do you ever look around and feel discouraged by the direction of our culture and its influence on the church? Do you experience shame…
Stop Living In the Past
Why do we struggle with the same old things? Why do we find ourselves breaking that vows we made to God and ourselves? Are we destined to go round and round, living in the fear of our future and the shame of our past? Is living in a constant state of recovery all there is, or is there something more? Over the next three weeks we will be looking through the lens of John 8:31-36 at three different people who…
Growing In God’s Grace
Every time we look at the newspaper we’re reminded about of a world that has no true understanding of real love. In Romans 1-11, we learned about important doctrinal issues like grace, mercy, God’s sovereignty, and other points of faith. Now in the last five chapters our focus will pivot towards how we love and relate to each other in Christ. Love is an action word that that builds community through caring for people and here in Romans we will…
We’re In This Together (series)
I was 10 years old when I saw the shape of a scary face in my bedroom window. The light hit the glass in just the right way to cause me to fear death. The only thing that changed that night was that I believed the lie that if I fell asleep I was in danger. But lies are funny things. They can feel so much like truth. God’s word says that “the truth will set you free”, that also…