Knowing Christ!

I have been a Christian for a long time, and have served Him in the local church for more than thirty years. I have been through great times and I have been through horrible times. There have been times when I have felt very close to God, and times when I have felt very disconnected from Him. Through all of this I have learned one very important fact, being a Christian is about having a living and vibrant relationship with Christ. This is what the Bible says:

Ephesians 3:16-19 I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit--not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength- that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

If you have been trying to act like a Christian and be a Christian, but you have not really built a relationship with Christ, then you are missing out on God's best for you! When we were children we used to sing "Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so" and that was very good. The truth is though God doesn't just want us to sing about it, He wants us to experience it!

I want to challenge you today to turn away from a dead religious ritual and gaze upon the face of God through relationship with our loving Saviour Jesus! He is waiting for you to connect with Him so you can experience a full life in the fullness of God!

Monday Morning Recap

Hi everyone! I am sorry it has been a while since I wrote on here but last week, I just needed to slow things down and get some time with God. I am excited to be back at it. Yesterday was a great day and I am so thankful to God that I get to pastor this church. so here are a few of the highlights of Sunday.

1. The worship was absolutely awesome! We have been working out a few glitches with sound and opening and things like that and yesterday it all came together. I am so happy with that.
2. I really sensed the presence of the Lord in the service and I know that lives were touched.
3. The Life group sign ups went great, we had a lot of people sign up and we are looking forward to a great Life Group session. If you have not yet signed up then get involved soon.
4. The videos and creative work done for Life Groups was amazing, and I want to thank Sylvie and Mike for all their work on Life Groups.
5. We had a bunch of visitors in the service and were thankful that we got the opportunity to serve them.

Have a great day!

Yard Sale Success!

What a great day! We probably had about two to three hundred people come through the Yard Sale today, and they got served very well. we were able to shine the love of Jesus in our community in a big way! Thanks to every one that helped out, the people were blown away by your generosity and your desire to serve them. Let's keep making the name of Jesus famous. I believe that there are a ton of visitors coming tomorrow so here are a few things you can do.

1. Pray that they will experience the love and the power of Jesus in the service, and that if they don't know Him yet that they will make a next step toward Him.
2. Come on time and really try to be in the auditorium when the service starts.
3. Take the time to welcome our guests and make them feel at home.

Kristine and I were pretty excited, because last week some of the people we have been inviting turned up in the service, and were really moved by the message. Keep inviting people, it is really important, maybe even go a step further than inviting and bring someone to church with you!

Thursday Night Reflections

Great night tonight! I just want to say thanks to our teens, they are really inviting a lot of people out to youth on Thursday's. Steve did a great job teaching tonight and made a really great point about carrying our Christian lives forward. He used the analogy of a football player carrying the ball forward toward the goal line and using the five yard markers as goals or steps along the way. Here are a few of my takeaways from his talk.

• The best defense is a great offense. We should always be moving our Christian lives forward, never live defensively.
• Christian life is a series of next steps and it is important to keep making the next step.
• Have your heart set on the goal but take it one step at a time.
• Living for God will give you a few bumps along the way but keep pushing on toward the goal. This is how Paul said it:

Philipians 3:13-15 Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward--to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. So let's keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision--you'll see it yet!

Twenty five there tonight and we had four visitors. God was glorified and we had fun so great night. Good job Steve!

Dave approved debt ;)

Romans 1:14 I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the foreigners, both to the wise and to the unwise.

This verse is burning in my heart and has been for a long time, because this is, I believe, God's call to the church. We can never repay the debt that God paid for us, but I believe that because God has given us the Good News, it is now our "debt" to tell others and help them experience the goodness of God!

Questions

I think that answering questions is a great way to grow as a Christian, so here are a few questions.

1. What are you doing that you should stop doing?
2. What are you thinking about doing but you are to afraid to start?
3. Who is there in your life that you need to help connect to Jesus?
4. What are you doing to help them?
5. Have you ever felt closer to God then you feel now? How have you moved?
6. Is there a recurring sin that you need to deal with? when will you deal with it?

Have fun!

How Intense are you?

I have been going through this time of awakening in my life like I have never experienced before, and I am so thankful to God for it. We just finished Youth Camp last week and we are working really hard to prepare for the Community Yard sale next week, so the intensity level is pretty high for me right now. I know this may sound strange, but this is what God has been teaching me through it. If my intensity goes up to finish a project or prepare for an event I can accomplish a lot in a short period of time. So if I would put the same intensity into reaching out to people what could happen? This is what Jeremiah had to say:

Jeremiah 20:9 Sometimes I tell myself not to think about you, LORD, or even mention your name. But your message burns in my heart and bones, and I cannot keep silent.

Here is what I think it takes to turn up the intensity till it becomes like a fire in your belly, or your bones.

1. We need to have a vibrant and connected relationship with the person Jesus (This comes through time spent with Him)
2. We must care about the things that He cares about, and the people that He died to save.
3. We must realize that Jesus doesn't really want you to be safe, He wants you to be dangerous.
4. We must deal with your selfishness with extreme prejudice.
5. We must live for Him like it is all that matters, because it is.

I really believe that God is calling us to a new level of intensity so that it will become hard to get to hell from this region. this is our responsibility and it is what we will have to give an account for.

Nathan I love this verse
Hebrews 9:12 Then Christ went once for all into the most holy place and freed us from sin forever.

Jesus died and once and for all time He freed us!

I believe that Jeremiah is now at his destination so remember to pray for him!

III'MMM BAAACK

Man I am getting old(er) and I still hate winter. I used to be able to stay awake for the whole weekend of youth camp and be set to go on Monday morning, but I have got to say between lack of sleep and freezing certain parts of my anatomy off, it has taken me a few days to recover. One thing that hasn't changed though is the boost I get out of seeing God work in peoples lives, especially young people. It was so fun seeing God challenging them in their thought and life patterns to make a step or two toward Him!

Which sort of brings me to my point today, and that is, How is it going with your next steps with God? Are you staying comfortable or are you allowing Him to push you out of your comfort zone. Are you living for Him 100% or are you still holding back from asking the question "What do I still lack?" I promise you I am going to stay on you about this issue because there is a world out there waiting for you to become dangerous and live for God with some intensity. Steven Furtick posted about changing the world a couple days ago I think it says a lot!

Please keep Sunday in prayer, we are starting the WHY series and I am believing God for many to come to know Him. Also think about who you can invite, it should be a moving service!

Have a great one

Sunday Night Reflections

Wow! I am so tired, seven hours of sleep all weekend. What a great time we had up at camp with our young people! Here are a few Highlights of the weekend.

1. The youth worship team did an awesome job at leading us into the presence of God!
2. I could tell people were praying, because right from the first few minutes of our Friday night service the teens were responding and I felt like they had really open hearts, and were really wanting to meet with God on the weekend.
3. Kathryn Fleming was amazing! She was honest, transparent, challenging and inspiring (also pretty cool :)
4. We have an amazing group of young men and women in our church and they make me feel very positive about our future!
5. We have some really funny, and creative guys in our youth group and I want to thank them for make me laugh all weekend.
6. Nathan is working on a video of the camp experience so hopefully you will get a closer look soon!
7. Several young people made some serious steps forward in their relationship with God and I am so thankful and amazed that God has given me the opportunity to serve these amazing people again after a three year absence.
8. God is absolutely amazing and I am thankful that whenever we take the time to seek Him He always does great things!
9. A big thank you to Pastor Paul Yuke for speaking in the morning service at Jubilee, I have only talked to a couple of people, but I heard that you all had a fantastic morning also!

Here are a couple of things for all of you to think about.

1. What would you attempt if you knew that you could not fail?
2. What is God asking you to do that is making you feel uncomfortable?
3. What are you doing to keep your love for Jesus white hot?

Have a great night!

What a great weekend!

What a great weekend! I really enjoyed the beautiful weather and got a lot done. I was really happy with the way everything went in our service. On the weekend someone told me that it is getting harder and harder to just sit around in our church because the message is pushing people to get involved. Someone else called and told us that they had been really moved by the messages to start being as outreach minded as they were when they first gave their heart to the Lord! those two comments made my weekend because I believe that this is what God has really been doing in my life and I believe He wants to do in the life of the Church. Here are a few things that we could all keep in our prayers.

1. Youth Camp is this weekend and I really want to see our young people experience a fresh connection with God, and also that they would see how valuable they are to us as a church and to God's Kingdom. That they would know that they have a part to play in reaching our community for Christ.
2. Pray for the community yard sale, that many would come and that we would be a blessing and encouragement to our community through it.
3. Ask God about what He thinks your part in reaching our Community for Christ.
4. Pray for our Life Groups, that we will be able to reach out to the community through them! We have eleven groups this time so that is the most ever!
5. Pray for Jeremiah as he is away over seas serving our military.
6. Pray for the weekend service, that God would lead people to it and that their lives would be changed by it.

Don't forget to invite someone to church this weekend!