Buildings are not the church

I am reminded once again the the church is not about where we meet, but the people who are part of it. Just like a family is not about the house and is still a family wherever they are. Loving Grace Alliance Church is not about a building or where we meet but about the loving relationships we have with God through His grace and with one another that would go one whether we meet in a building or a tent or some other place. We are all part of God's family together. I am excited to see how God is going to work out how we gather corporately in the coming months and I await His miraculous provision for our church family. My prayer is that He gets all the glory through this process and we can stand back to see how God has moved in our midst.

Thoughts about the new year

I don't know about you but in recent years I have been thinking and reflecting at this time of year about what has happened and what will happen in the next year. I don't know if next year will entail as many changed for my life as this past year did. In the past year I bought a house, moved, quit my career and started a new one. Took over a church. Preached more in the first 3 months than I have ever done in my entire life. I performed a funeral for a friend, saw others go through great struggles with their health and the health of others. I saw people's lives changed by God this year. I baptized 6 who are following Jesus. I dedicated a child and his family to follow God. It has been a year full of new things for me and for our church. Isn't that part of what God does? He makes all things new. He is a God of new beginnings. We have some of those coming up this year as we rename the church, as we move to a new location. I'm sure that next year as I look back I will see as many if not more changes in my life as I seek to follow God. How about you? What has God done for you this last year and what may be in store for the next one?

Crazy Days

Some days are just so full of stuff that it is easy to forget the time we should spend with God. Today is one of those days for me. A lot of running around and things to get done today so that tomorrow goes smoother. I woke up later that I should have and the first temptation was to get on the computer and start working since I have leave in less than an hour for a meeting. Instead I had to discipline myself to take some time in the Bible and prayer before I really got into the day. God gives me so much when I put Him first. Often what I read in the morning is applicable at some point in the day and God brings it to mind. Don't forget in the busyness of life to remember and talk to the one who love you the most and has numbered each hair on your head. Not just counted but has each hair numbered. Take a few minutes today to spend with your creator and remember why you are here.

Shepherds

In the Christmas story we find shepherds being the first to know that a Savior was born to Israel. Why shepherds? Maybe they of all people were the most open to hearing the hope that was brought to them by the angels. There must be something to the shepherd thing because most of the people God used early in the Old Testament were shepherds. Abraham, Jacob, Moses and David were all shepherds at some point. It must teach you something about God to be a shepherd and how God views us. They were just normal people going about their daily work and God spoke to them and used them in amazing ways. God still does it today with you and me.

Time to think

I normally have so many things going on around me that it can be hard to take time to think about anything fully. So today, I was able to spend 4 hours shoveling snow and was able to actually think about stuff. Nothing all that important but it was good to get away from the distractions. I find that having something repetitive and mindless to do helps me think through whatever is on my mind. I also was able to finish an audio book of John Piper's "Desiring God". It was a pretty good book and worth the time to listen to it. He broadened my understanding of why God created us, to enjoy His presence in our lives forever. Seems simple, but it can be complicated. For anyone looking for a challenging book, check this one out some time.

Polling on Sunday

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to sit outside of Murphy's Markeyplace in Atco and poll people about our new name. It was interesting to see how people responded to our request. Some ignored us or said not thanks to answering our question. Some stopped to talk and find out more about us. A few wanted to donate money. We weren't there to take money from others but to get their opinion of what church name most appeals to them and to give them a candy cane for their vote. We have 2 more days scheduled for taking polls this week and I hope that we get a good feel for the community and what name would help to draw people in to our church family. That is the reason we are changing is to connect better with our community. As I think about changing the name and what we will choose it helps to keep in mind that our name is really about connecting with others and not so much about our wants and desires.

Word Became Flesh

I wonder sometimes if we look at John 1:14 and kind of miss the amazing import of that fact the the Word, which was with God and was God became flesh. Somehow this person of Jesus Christ was both flesh and God at the same time. I can't even begin to comprehend it. That God would choose to do this just makes me sit in disbelief. I don't understand fully why He did it, but I am thankful that He did. Without the Word becoming flesh, I would not have a relationship with God, my sins would still be held against me and I would be under God's judgment and not under His grace. Join me this week in contemplating how amazing God's love for us is as we think about what His becoming flesh truly means for each of us.

Hope

To me, this time of year speaks of hope. For many years God made promises to His followers. To Adam in the Garden, to Abraham and to many others God made promises of the future messiah. We are celebrating the fulfillment of the messiah arriving. It seemed like a long time from when the promises were made to when they came true. But it happened and it gives me hope that the other promises will one day come happen. Without the birth of Christ, we are living on deferred hope. With the birth we live on a new hope as we see how God works throughout history. Remember this Christmas season of the hope that you have in Jesus Christ. A hope that is sure and will never fail.

Church Names

Today, I announced the short list of names for the church. We came down to these 3. Faith Community Alliance, Joy Community Alliance and Loving Grace Alliance. We felt strongly that Alliance should be part of our name since we are part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. There is a poll up on our website for people to submit which name they believe works best for us. The reason we are renaming is as we have looked at our community we see that it is a more traditional community especially when it comes to Christianity. We will be challenged in the coming weeks and months as to how to incorporate things that may be more traditional into what we do without changing who we are and our message. It is important for our church to communicate in ways that our local culture can understand so that they may come to be followers of Jesus Christ. I encourage you to take time in the next few weeks to talk to your friends, relatives and neighbors about our name and have them go online to www.edgechurch.org and take the poll. We need your input to make this change a success.

Thanksgiving Day

Today is Thanksgiving and I have so much to be thankful for. I have a wonderful family. We have had 2 new additions to our extended family and one being added in by marriage next year. I have a great job. I go to a great church. I have heat on the cold days and food on my table. I feel very blessed. Today I will be going to a men's breakfast at Lambs Road Assembly and then heading to my sister's for Thanksgiving dinner. It will be a day of eating all sorts of stuff but I don't want to forget to thank God for all His blessings. All that I have is God's and comes from Him. I am just His steward. I pray that you would be able to find the things that you can be thankful for today and praise God for them. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sadduccees

This week I mentioned the Sadduccees. As I was thinking about them I began to wonder why they even professed to follow God if they didn't believe in any sort of afterlife. What is the purpose of following a strict set of rules when you believe that once you die there is nothing. Maybe it was because they saw it as a way to gain power in this life and wanted to be able to wield power over others. Or they just hadn't thought their position on the resurrection very well. My eternal life began when I became a follower of Jesus Christ and will continue for all eternity. What I do here and now matters. There is a purpose and reason for my life and everyone else's. I am thankful this week for my relationship with Jesus Christ. I am thankful that I can live a life of eternal significance because of what Jesus did for me. What are you thankful for?

Men's Retreat

Today we are headed out on our first men's retreat. We are going to Harvey Cedar's Retreat Center. I am looking forward to getting to know these men better and to see how God is going to challenge us in our time away. We are going to be talking about discipleship and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. We all need reminders at time of what it means to follow Jesus. I pray this would spur all of us forward in our walk with Christ.

Money pt.2

As I was pondering my own finances and how it relates to my faith in God I had a thought. Consider this. What if each of us was employed by the same company and we each had a corporate credit card. We would be allowed to use that card for specific purposed based on the policies of the company. Some things would be allowed like a modest hotel room while on a business trip. Other things like an extravagant room could be banned. Renting a car or taking a plane could be ok if it fir into the policy. If we decided to take that card and go out on a shopping spree we would be using it wrongly and stealing from the company especially if we hid what we did. We would be guilty of misappropriation of funds. You hear about it all the time. A local sports group will have someone who made off with a lot of money. In most cases it started off small. A little bit here with the promise to pay it back later. Over time it begins to snowball into a larger and larger amount and then the person is facing jail time. Don't we do the same thing? We are servants of a King. We have a policy (the Bible) to follow. When we go against the stated policy we are stealing from the King. When we use His things in the wrong ways we are guilty of being bad stewards. Where in your life are you using things that belong to God (which is everything) in ways that wouldn't please Him? Will you continue to disobey God or will to look as His word and put your trust in what He says is right and true? What are you going to do about?

Money

One of the more difficult things we as American's find to talk about is our money. Yet Jesus time and again points it out as something that can be stumbling block to each of us. This past Sunday we looked at the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30. We saw that 2 of the servants were good stewards of the master's wealth by using the master's money in a way that pleased the master. They knew what the master desired and carried it out. We know what our master desires. He wrote it down in His book to us. We need to be good stewards of what He has given us especially when it comes to money. He gives principles such as giving back to Him of the first fruits of what we get. To give to Him off the top and not as an afterthought. He is the one who gave us the ability to work and earn money. When we surrender our lives to God's control we need to also surrender in this area. Martin Luther is reported to have said "There are three conversions a person needs to experience: The conversion of the head; the conversion of the heart; and the conversion of the pocketbook."

Maybe we don't trust God enough in the area of our finances. It seems hard to me that we trust Him for salvation from judgment for our sins which is a huge thing. But when it comes to our money we can't seem to trust that His way is right. Maybe we need to take time to ponder why we trust Him for the most important thing in the world and yet not trust Him with lesser things like money and how we use it.

My Spiritual Gifts

This week I took a spiritual gifts test to see if anything has changed since the last time I took one. I compared my previous one from about 4 years ago and not much has changed. I still rank highest in knowledge and teaching. I believe God has put me in a good place to use both of these gifts for His glory. If you haven't already taken a spiritual gifts test, take one now. Here is the link to the one I took. http://www.kodachrome.org/spiritgift/

God answer's prayer

I was trying something new in my prayer time yesterday. Another pastor suggested writing out my prayers on an index card and then placing them on a shelf signifying that I was giving my request to God. One of the items I prayed about was having to do with paying some unexpected bills and be able to buy some Christmas presents for my family. I put this on the shelf at 7:45 yesterday morning and at 4:30 I got a call to do some consulting work that I thought wouldn't take too long. I ended up with at least 6 hours of work and should be able to pay some of those bills and put some towards Christmas shopping. I can't say that writing prayers down is what did it, but how many times to we pray for something and we forget about it and never look to see how God answered our prayers. I encourage you this week to take some time to see how God has answered your prayers.

Spiritual Gifts

This past Sunday we looked 1 Peter 4:7-11 and saw that God has given us spiritual gifts to be used to serve others. I encouraged each person to take a spiritual gifts test and to pray about how God could use them effectively for His kingdom. When we use our spiritual gifts we are showing the grace of God towards others. We are not limited to using our spiritual gifts inside the church body. We can use our gifts in every situation we find ourselves. We should be looking for opportunities to use our gifts in everyday life. Pray that God would use you today in the gifts that He has blessed you with. That is my prayer.

Veteran's Day

This week we celebrate Veteran's Day. I would like to thank each and every veteran for their service to this great country. Your dedication, sacrifice and patriotism should be praised by all American's. My prayer is that God would bless you for your service on behalf of others and that He would protect those who are still in service to our country.

What is God's?

We are going to be examining how we can be good stewards of everything that God has blessed us with over the next few weeks. This past Sunday we looked at what belongs to God from each one of us. Matthew 22:37 speaks to our love belonging to God. Malachi 1:6-8 shows us that we need to give God our honor. Malachi 3:8-10 shows us that we need to give our best of our tithes and offerings to God. John 14:1 says that we need to trust God. 1 Peter 4:1-3 is about how our time and our lives belong to God. Psalms 24:1 tells us the everything that has been created belongs to God.

I believe as we change our mindset and outlook from everything we have as belonging to us to everything belonging to God, it will free us to do what He wants us to do with His stuff. As stewards of God's creation we are to use everything for His glory. It all comes from Him and we will be held accountable for how we use and steward what has been put under our control.

It comes down to being honest about how we don't give back to God what is His. And once we repent we can then begin to give to God what is His and use the blessings He has given us to His glory. When we don't own up to this fact that we all miss the mark at times when it comes to being good stewards we are like the people God speaks to in Malachi 3:8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me." We rob God by stealing from Him what is rightfully His. What in your life needs to change? I implore you to change it now.

Why are we here?

Sometimes I think it is good for us to take time to examine why we are here. Why does God have us in this place at this time? How can we glorify Him through our current circumstances? I think it goes back to Matthew 28 when Jesus tells the disciples what they are to do for the rest of their lives. He tells them to go make disciples who follow everything that Jesus had taught them to do. We are here, as disciples of Jesus Christ to go make new disciples and pass on the life changing message of Jesus Christ to all those that God has put in our path. God has put you in a specific situation to allow you to share the Good News in a way that no one else can. Jesus did not die on the cross just so that you can go to spend eternity with God once you die. He died also so that you may bring life to others who are dying in their sins and upon whom God's judgment currently rests. Until we begin to see others as God sees them we will not be true disciples or followers. Pray that God would open your eyes to see and love people as He does. Allow Him to change your heart towards others.