BIG NEWS

Jesus loves you! It may not be a surprise to some, but to others it is such a great relief to know someone loves and forgives you.Christ came for those that knew they were sinners not those whom thought themselves righteous.

One way in

I wish that if there were one thing we could do better as Christians is get along better with ourselves. How can we focus all our time on seeking and saving the lost, or being in our community planting seeds and reeping the harvest that is so ripe when we are spending too much time complaining about one another or trying to prove how we are the only way to heaven? Christ says, I am the way the truth and the light no one gets to the father except through me." (John14:6)

    We need to realize that salvation has nothing to do with us but by the sacrifice of Christ, the free gift of salvation. Through that gift Christ gives us a simple command. He tells us really to do just two things he says, love The Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and love your neighbor as your self. Do we need to be aware of false teachers, yes! Do we condemn people, no! Jesus didn't give us the authority to judge others, in fact he says, "Matthew 7:1-6 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. 

    I think we need to evaluate where we are at and strive to love God more and everyday by the love we have for God we learn to love His creation more and more! 

God I pray that you help us be the example of love to the world around us using the example of your son Christ. The perfecter of our faith, and we can walk in the light as he is in the light and have fellowship with one another, and with that the love of Christ will cover our sins. I pray that I don't just use words but actions, and I pray that I start with my family, by being a better husband, better father, and a better man. I pray as a leader I lead better by being a better follower of you! And I pray that you open our eyes more often to your eternal plan for us, and I Pray this in your son holy name, amen.

ALL IN

I love that I get the open forum to talk with people about their faith, the bible, Christianity, life ETC.. The other day I had a conversation with a friend about a verse in the bible where Christ comes across as being pretty insensitive. The verse is Matthew Chapter 8 verse 21-22:  21 another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead. [f]”

    You might read this and say WOAH Jesus eat a snickers you are grumpy when you are hungry. But we need to read this in context and also understand that Christ knows our hearts and where we stand in our thoughts. Jesus was taking a moment to let us know when he calls he wants us to be all in, this may seem like a drastic case but it serves a point for the crowd that was following that hey if you want to truly be my disciple I need all of you, don’t worry of things of this world put all of your energy into what matters most, giving us an eternal perspective. 

     In Luke chapter 9:23-26 he gives us more instructions of what we need to do is we are going to follow him her says, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.25 and what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed? 26 If anyone is ashamed of my message, and me the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels. 27 I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Kingdom of God.” We are called to take this approach to deny ourselves, to pick up our cross daily and understand that yes, daily I need to be restored by Christ and humbled, I do this by lifting up this heavy cross that I cannot carry alone, but only by the grace of God to I get a chance and redemption, and only through Christ may I have a life that is eternal. Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Ultimately we cant be all in if we are stuck on things of this world, we aren’t able to be, I don't want to hold on to something I cant take with me and lose something that I will have for forever.

     Christ wants us all in, and as we take this journey further the next month or so we are going to learn that when we go all in we have nothing to fear because God has already dealt us a winning hand. 

   Join us on Sunday for more information www.elkgrovechurchofchrist.org

Online sermons

Hey everyone sorry for the lack of blog posts, I have been super busy but I wanted to share with all of you that my sermons are online at www.elkgrovechurchofchrist.org if you missed them or would like to revisit the info you can click on the sermons tab on the front page.

Have an awesome and blessed day

Unashamed

Sorry I have been gone from the blogosphere for a while I have been swamped with awesomeness! Wouldn't you love to be swamped with awesomeness also? Here are a few things you can do to turn your ordinary into awesome: 

1: find ways to put others above yourself.

2: seek first the kingdom of Go and his righteousness

3: do not be ashamed of the Gospel, Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit when conducting your business.

I have found that when I am serving God and loving Him with everything that I have, all my mind, heart soul, and strength; and loving what he has created especially my neighbors, my life just gets better. It is hard to deny Christ when you are spending time with him daily.  So the challenge is have you helped someone today, maybe gave a smile, opened a door, have a complement, share a kind word. Have you forgiven someone today? Have you let go of some anger today, and instead spread happiness? Have you consulted in rather with God before making decisions? Have you displayed Christ with out shame in the way you talk to people, the way you work, the way you play, the way you drive? When you start to lie this way (which is a change in how you are living now) you will start to see the world in awesome technicolor wonderment that is the blood tinted glasses of Christ! Try it out and tell me how it goes 

Giving God your Best!!

Quick post for all of us to think about...Are you giving your best to God or are you giving him your tired beat down left overs? I was looking through a bunch of scriptures and I found that God doesnt really like second hand gifts, he likes the best. Cain and Able came before God with their sacrifices to Him, one was great and the other well... not so much. Abel came before God with his best offering from his livestock and it pleased The Lord. Cain he brought the average plate of his produce and fruits to God and God didnt like it so much. it wasnt because one was meat and the other a veggie tray that got God all miffed, it was because it wasnt Cains best. Cain becomes angry and sad and God tells him, Why has your countenance fallen, dont you know if you do what is right you will be blessed but if you do what is wrong sin is knocking at your door and you need to conquer it. There is something to be said about not giving your best, when you give God your leftovers you are telling him that he plays second fiddle to all the other stuff in your world, and he isnt really into that. Or what about in Isaiah 58 where Isaih tell the people who are claiming to fast and worship God, but get chastised for their worship because they were not really giving God their all they were being superficial, and quite honestly they wouldnt hear God because he wasnt near them. God tells them the kind of fasting i want is for you to free the wrongfully accused, loosen the chains on the oppressed, lighten the load of those who work for you, give food to the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, dont run when family asks for help, when you do this your Godliness goes before you and when you call out my name i will answer here I AM! Finally in Malachi the priests were not giving their everything to God in their sacrifices in stead they were using them to turn a profit, instead of giving God the best sacrifices to God they gave lame animals, blind animals, ones with diseases Etc.. God responds like this, "“Go ahead, beg God to be merciful to you! But when you bring that kind of offering, why should he show you any favor at all?” asks the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “and I will not accept your offerings. “But you dishonor my name with your actions. By bringing contemptible food, you are saying it’s all right to defile the Lord’s table. You say, ‘It’s too hard to serve the Lord,’ and you turn up your noses at my commands,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Think of it! Animals that are stolen and crippled and sick are being presented as offerings! Should I accept from you such offerings as these?” asks the Lord. “Cursed is the cheat who promises to give a fine ram from his flock but then sacrifices a defective one to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “and my name is feared among the nations! (Malachi 1:9, 10, 12-14 NLT)" How blessed could your life be if you truly gave the God of Heavens armies your absolute best, your perspective would be so awesome because the world as you know it would no longer revolve around you, it wouldnt be about wealth of this world, coveting your neighbors stuff, or other women/men, it wouldnt be about greener grass, or bank accounts. It would be about pleaseing the creator of all of those things, giving Him glory and building your true treasures in heaven. God loves you and wants desperately for you to see him as the king worthy of all your praise and when you give that to him he adopts you into his family giving you his inheritance. Dont settle for anything less that giving your absolute best, think about it God gave you his absolute best when he sent you His Son to die on the cross for you!

All to Jesus I surrender

This is one of my favorite hymns, the idea of being able to give it all to Jesus, sounds so, comforting. However we as humans struggle with this, we pretend to give things to Christ, we say things like I prayed about it, or its in God's hands now... What we really mean by this when we say it is I have no control and i am going to be mad if I don't get what I want but you will view me differently because I said I gave it to God. We seek control so often that even in our facade of surrender we long to be in control. We say things like God I am giving this burden to you, and we follow that great act up by saying words like, "If you work this out for me, I promise I will never swear again." or "God if you take this problem off my hands I promise I will go to Sunday night church, and I will actually pay attention." we arent giving our burdens up we are bartering with God. We are trying to play give and take with the creator of the universe. Being able to surrender everything to Christ is being able to say "Lord I pray that in this situation your will be done." and having comfort in not having to get explanations of why God choses to answer your prayer the way he does, or even seeking understanding. Surrendering to God is saying into your hands I give control, I trust that you God have my best interest in mind, and that you will lead me where I need to be. As the song states, " All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give." The hope is that whatever situation you are going through, big or small, whether it be a joyous occasion or a grief stricken sad one, we can freely give it to Jesus, the author and perfecter of Hope, Joy, Peace, and Love. "Lay your burden down Every care you carry, And come to the table of grace, For there is mercy.Come just as you are, We are all unworthy To enter the presence of God For He is holy."

The more we trust in the God the more we allow ourselves to give him control, and allow Him to work within us, and not ask for anything but comfort, God is in control and he wants to prosper us.