THE BLOG
Category
Topic
- Anxiety 2
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- Bible 4
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- Body of Christ 1
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- Christian Living 91
- Christlikeness 6
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- Scripture 2
Gushing with Gratitude
I have to admit that I’m an official gravy-sucker. If you’re not familiar with the south, that generally means you love gravy so much you’re even willing to drink it. That’s me; just ask Kim. During our family Thanksgiving, we have lots of gravy and I love to fill my plate with the turkey (white meat only) and all the delectable side dishes and then pour gravy over the whole plate so it saturates everything! It’s soooooo good. Any fellow gravy-suckers out there?
When it comes to general thanksgiving, God clearly tells us to be like gravy-suckers and saturate our lives with gratitude. Just pour it all over our lives and circumstances because we know He is working in and through everything.
A Special Message from our Leadership Team
A Special Message from our Leadership TeamWe are very excited to regather in person throughout our church this week after a brief COVID-related interruption to our normal ministry gatherings. In light of the Governor’s new temporary measures, we are pleased to continue meeting in person as we did before on Sundays and throughout our entire ministry (none of the new measures change any of our previous in-person meetings whether on campus or in homes).
Why Singing is Essential to Worship
God created us to sing and enjoy the message, rhythm, and emotion of music. When it comes to God’s people, we are specially designed to sing and to sing our praises to God together. Psalm 147:1 says: “Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant and praise is becoming.” Here’s WHY it’s so vital.
The Benefits of Gathering With God's People
I just read this interesting piece of research: “People who attended a religious service at least once a week were significantly less likely to die from ‘deaths of despair,’ which included deaths related to suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol poisoning” according to research published recently in JAMA Psychiatry. The study went on to say “women who attended religious services at least once a week had a 68 percent lower risk of death from despair compared to their peers who never attended services and men had a 33 percent lower risk of death from despair.” (“Attending Religious Services Associated with Lower Risk of Deaths of Despair,” Mind, Mood & Memory, Massachusetts General Hospital, Vol. 16, No. 9, p. 6)
Election Reflection
At the time of this writing, there are still a few elections that have not yet been called. In particular, is the one regarding who will be leading our nation for the next four years. There is always an array of emotions depending upon which referendum or initiative did or didn’t pass, or whether the candidates we preferred were elected or not.
No matter what your reaction during times like these, we as believers can be confident about the following things which were true this past Monday (before the election), Tuesday (during the election), Thursday, and beyond (after any and every election):
Resist Distraction
For the past 10 years, AT&T has been running a national campaign called “It Can Wait.” This crusade is about motivating people to avoid the dangers of driving while distracted. They have invited people to take a pledge to never drive distracted. Over 40 million have taken the following pledge.
God’s Tool Box for Growth
Are you growing in your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ?It’s a must! You and I are saved to grow (Col. 2:6-7), commanded to grow (2 Pet. 3:18), and equipped to grow (2 Pet 1:3).But growth is not automatic.The blessing of the Christian life is that the Lord gives us all the TOOLS we need to grow, but we need to use them.Here are a few must-have, must-utilize tools:
Never Forget
It seems like a big part of life is remembering things…your keys, phone, names, bills, turning things off, turning things on, etc. Some of us are better than others at remembering things. We’ve all seen or read the bumper sticker that says “I’ve got everything together, I just forgot where I put it.”
But we also know there are things we should never forget…birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, promises, and most importantly, the lavish richness of God’s grace and truth toward us who believe!
God is not a forgetter even when He chooses not to recall our sins against Him (Jer. 31:34; Isa. 43:25; Heb. 8:12; 10:17). The Hebrews writer makes this amazing statement about our God: “for God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints” (Heb. 6:10).
God doesn’t forget:
