Church guide

There was once a group of women studying the book of Malachi in the Old Testament. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three, which says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” This verse puzzled the women, and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study. That week this woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot – then she thought again about the verse, that he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered “Yes”, and explained that he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be damaged. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?” He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy. When I see my image in it.” If today you are feeling the heat of this world’s fire, just remember that God the Father has His eyes on you. - Unknown

For all who may be hurting in some way today.... PRAYER OF HOPE God of Love and Mercy, ease my burdens, calm my anxieties, strengthen my faith, and increase my trust and confidence in Your caring goodness. Bless me each day with Your healing grace, with health in mind and body, and a heart filled with hope and peace. Grant me the courage I need, dear Lord, to face all difficulties, knowing that with Your help, miracles happen and lives are restored. Amen God loves you and will help you through anything. Trust Him! Have faith in Him.

Dear child of mine, I am one who comforts you. I bought you and complete you. I delight in you and claim you as my own, rejoicing over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. I will never fail you or forsake you. You are worried and troubled about many things; trust me with all your heart. I know how to rescue godly people from their trials. Let me strengthen you with my glorious power. I did not spare my Son but gave him up for you. Won’t I give you everything else? When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. So, don’t worry. I never tire or sleep. I stand beside you. The angel of the LORD encamps around you. I hide you in the shelter of my presence. I will go ahead of you, directing your steps and delighting in every detail of your life. If you stumble, you will not fall, for I hold you by the hand. I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will make you fruitful in the land of suffering, trading beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, praise for despair. I live with the low spirited and spirit crushed. I put new spirit in you and get you on your feet again. Weeping may go on all night, but joy comes with the morning. If I am for you, who can ever be against you? You sometimes say, “The Lord has deserted me; the Lord has forgotten me.” But can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for a child she has borne? Even if that were possible, I would not forget you! I paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, my sinless, spotless Lamb. No one will snatch you away from me. See, I have written your name on my hand. I call you my friend. Why, the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are valuable to me. Give me your burdens; I will take care of you. Your Maker, your Father, God Borrowed from Max Lucado 7/6/17

We're trying a new song tomorrow morning to wake you all up after losing an hour of sleep tonight!

Open your Table - The news of yet another shooting leaves us stunned. Violence, it seems, has taken up residence down the street and we are left unnerved, undone and insecure. An uneasiness sits over our country like a midnight fog. We hear of opioid abuse, increasing numbers of suicides and this, a former Marine turned gunman kills 12 people in bar rampage. What are we to do? We feel like locking our doors and never entering society again. But it is time for us to do just the opposite. It’s time for us to reach out to one another, to open our doors, sit down at our tables and talk. It’s no accident that hospitality and hospital come from the same Latin word, for they both lead to the same result: healing. When you open your door to someone, you are sending this message: “You matter.” Do you know people who need this message? Singles who eat alone? Young couples who are far from home? Co-workers who’ve been transferred, teens who feel left out, and seniors who no longer drive? Some people pass an entire day with no meaningful contact with anyone else. Your hospitality can be their hospital. All you need are a few basic practices. Issue a genuine invitation. Let your guests know you want them to come. Call them on the phone or step over to their desk at work. Are they neighbors? Knock on their door and say, “We’d love for you to join us at our dinner table tonight. Please come.” People weather so many daily rejections. The doctor can’t see them, the kids didn’t call. The airplane is booked. But then you invite them over. We have room for you! Life-altering. Make a big deal out of their arrival. Gather the entire family at the front door. Swing it open as you see them approach. If you have a driveway, meet them on it. If your apartment has a lobby, be waiting on them. This is a parade-worthy moment. One of God’s children is coming to your house! Address the needs of your guests. Take time to talk and listen. No televisions blaring in the background. No invasive music. Make sure everyone has the opportunity to speak. Go around the table and share favorite moments of the day, or memories of the week. Send them out with a blessing. Make it clear you are glad your guests came. Offer a prayer for their safety and a word of encouragement for their travel. The event need not be elaborate to be significant. You think the living room is a mess, but to the person whose life is a mess, your house is a sanctuary. You think the meal is simple, but to those who eat alone every night, pork and beans on paper plates tastes like filet mignon. What is small to you is huge to them. Open your table. Even more, open your circle. The Greek word for hospitality compounds two terms: love and stranger. The word literally means to love a stranger. Anyone can welcome a guest they know and love. But can we welcome a stranger? Can Hispanics live in peace with Anglos? Can Democrats find common ground with Republicans? Can a Christian family carry on a civil friendship with the Muslim couple down the street? Can divergent people get along? The odds of harmony increase as we sit down together and talk. The California shooting will stir impassioned arguments about gun control and violence. Needed conversations to be sure. Yet, while policy-makers point fingers and make speeches, how about the rest of us reach out to one another. Open our doors. Open our hearts. And open our circles. Who would have thought? God’s secret weapons in the war on fear include your kitchen table and mine. We never know what one meal will do. ©Max Lucado, November, 2018

JOY WILL COME ... Maybe it was the way he said her name. The inflection. The tone. The Galilean accent. Maybe it was the memory associated with it, the moment she first heard someone say her name without demons screaming it in her mind. “Mary.” She’d come to the tomb early that morning. Before the sun was up. Before anyone knew the Son was up. She found the tomb to be empty except for some angels she mistook for grave robbers. She told them that she would retrieve the body if they would disclose the location. That’s when Jesus spoke her name. “Mary.” When she heard the voice she knew the source. “She turned and said to Him, ‘Rabboni!’ (which is to say, Teacher)” (John 20: 16 NKJV). In a second. In a pivot of the neck. In the amount of time it took to rotate her head from this way to that, her world went from dead Jesus to a living one. She threw her arms around him. We know this to be true because of the next words Jesus said: “Don’t hold on to me, because I have not yet gone up to the Father” (John 20: 17 NCV). Maybe she fell at his feet and held his ankles. Maybe she threw her arms around his shoulders and held him close. We don’t know how she held him. We just know, for a moment, she did. And Jesus let her do so. How wonderful that he did! That the resurrected Lord was not too holy, too otherly, too divine, and supernatural to be hugged. Someone should paint this scene. Capture it in oil and frame it on canvas. The brilliant golden sunrise. The open tomb. Angels watching from a distance. The white-robed Messiah. The joy-filled Mary. Her arms around him. His eyes upon her. If you are the one to paint this scene, be sure to include the reflection of the sunrise in the tears of Mary. And, by all means, paint a broad smile on the face of Jesus. “Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things to her” (John 20: 18 NKJV). To her! Of all the people to whom he could have spoken, he went first to her. He’d just ripped the gates off of the hinges of hell. He’d just yanked the fangs out of Satan’s mouth. He’d just turned BC into AD. Jesus was the undisputed King of the universe. Ten thousand angels stood in rapt attention ready to serve. And what was his first act? To whom did he go? To Mary; the weeping, heartbroken woman who once had seven demons. Why? Why her? As far as we know, she didn’t become a missionary. No epistle bears her name. No New Testament story describes her work. Why did Jesus create this moment for Mary Magdalene? I can’t help but think it was to prove this promise: “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5 NLT). Joy comes because Jesus comes. If we don’t recognize his face, he will call our names. “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:16 NIV). Your name is not buried in some heavenly file. God needs no nametag to jog his memory about you. Your name is tattooed, engraved on his hand. He has more thoughts about you than the Pacific coast has grains of sand. You are everything to God. Do you find this hard to believe? You think I’m talking to someone else? Someone who is holier, better, nicer? Someone who didn’t screw up their marriage or mess up a career? Someone who didn’t get hooked on pills or porn or popularity? You think I’m talking to someone else. I’m not. I’m talking directly to you. I’m saying that the greatest news in the world is not that God made the world, but that God loves the world. He loves you. You did not earn this love. His love for you will not end if you lose your temper. His love for you will not fade if you lose your way. His love for you will not diminish if your discipline does. You have never lived one unloved day. Someone told you that God loves good people. Wrong. There are no good people. Someone told you that God loves you if you love him first. Wrong. He loves people who have never thought of him. Someone told you that God is ticked-off, cranky, and vindictive. Wrong. We tend to be ticked-off, cranky, and vindictive. But God? “God is sheer mercy and grace; not easily angered, he’s rich in love. He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever. He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs. As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him. And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins. As parents feel for their children, GOD feels for those who fear him” (Psalm 103:8-13 MSG). God loves you and because he does, joy will come. © Max Lucado, February 2017

Can we ask for Spring?!? ❤️

So thankful for the Sonshine!

Who is guilty of this?

Due to current weather conditions, we are CANCELLING services for January 20, 2019.

I LOVE THIS! Church is hard. Church is hard for the person walking through the doors, afraid of judgement. Church is hard for the pastor’s family, under the microscope of an entire body. Church is hard for the prodigal soul returning home, broken and battered by the world. Church is hard for the girl who looks like she has it all together, but doesn’t. Church is hard for the couple who fought the entire ride to service. Church is hard for the single mom, surrounded by couples holding hands, and seemingly perfect families. Church is hard for the widow and widower with no invitation to lunch after service. Church is hard for the deacon with an estranged child. Church is hard for the person singing worship songs, overwhelmed by the weight of the lyrics. Church is hard for the man insecure in his role as a leader. Church is hard for the wife who longs to be led by a righteous man. Church is hard for the nursery volunteer who desperately longs for a baby to love. Church is hard for the single woman and single man, praying God brings them a mate. Church is hard for the teenage girl, wearing a scarlet letter, ashamed of her mistakes. Church is hard for the sinners. Church is hard for me. It’s hard because on the outside it all looks shiny and perfect. Sunday best in behavior and dress. However, underneath those layers, you find a body of imperfect people, carnal souls, selfish motives. But, here is the beauty of church— Church isn’t a building, mentality, or expectation. Church is a body. Church is a group of sinners, saved by grace, living in fellowship as saints. Church is a body of believers bound as brothers and sisters by an eternal love. Church is a holy ground where sinners stand as equals before the Throne of Grace. Church is a refuge for broken hearts and a training ground for mighty warriors. Church is a converging of confrontation and invitation. Where sin is confronted and hearts are invited to seek restoration. Church is a lesson in faith and trust. Church is a bearer of burdens and a giver of hope. Church is a family. A family coming together, setting aside differences, forgetting past mistakes, rejoicing in the smallest of victories. Church, the body, and the circle of sinners-turned-saints, is where He resides, and if we ask, He is faithful to come. So even on the hard days at church— The days when I am at odds with a friend, When I’ve fought with my husband because we’re late once again. When I’ve walked in bearing burdens heavier than my heart can handle, yet masking the pain with a smile on my face. When I’ve worn a scarlet letter, under the microscope. When I’ve longed for a baby to hold, or fought tears as the lyrics were sung. When I’ve walked back in, afraid and broken, after walking away. I’ll remember, He has never failed to meet me there. A copy & paste status that I think is so true and needs needs to be said. Church is a body, a family, a place to love God and love others through our struggles!

What Can’t You Give Up? [Nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God. Romans 8:39, HOSEA 11:8–11 “What’s one thing you can’t give up?” the radio host asked. Listeners called in with some interesting answers. Some mentioned their families, including a husband who shared memories of a deceased wife. Others shared they can’t give up on their dreams, such as making a living in music or becoming a mother. All of us have something we treasure dearly—a person, a passion, a possession—something we can’t give up. In the book of Hosea, God tells us that He won’t give up on His chosen people Israel, His treasured possession. As Israel’s loving husband, God provided her with everything she needed: land, food, drink, clothing, and security. Yet like an adulterous spouse, Israel rejected God and sought her happiness and security elsewhere. The more God pursued her, the further she drifted away (Hosea 11:2). However, though she had hurt Him deeply, He would not give her up (v. 8). He would discipline Israel so as to redeem her; His desire was to re-establish His relationship with her (v. 11). Today, all God’s children can have the same assurance: His love for us is a love that will never let us go (Romans 8:37-39). If we’ve wandered from Him, He yearns for us to return. When God disciplines us, we can be comforted that it’s a sign of His pursuit, not of His rejection. We are His treasure; He won’t give up on us.