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Or maybe not

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20    Some people are put off by the idea of person-to-person contact. They are satisfied watching a church service on TV and if they do enter the church they are happiest sitting quietly in the pew, hoping no one says “hello” or shakes their hand. They miss alot. Adrian Rogers would tell the story about a fellow who courted a girl by writing her a beautiful love letter every day for two years. He thought that would be a wonderful way to court her. Do you know what happened? She married the mail carrier!    There is nothing like being there. There is nothing like personal contact. There is a sense in which Jesus Christ is present when His people gather that’s not in any other sense. You cannot get it the same way at home or even “alone” in a crowd.  Next Sunday we will kick off our semester of small group gatherings. Wednesday nights will be alive again. There will be many opportunties. I will be leading a Sunday night series on Being the Church. We […]

The purpose of a fruit tree is to bear fruit, as is the purpose of a Christian. You and I were made to bear fruit. For the Christian, our “fruit” is changed lives…our own, and others. Yet some believers’ lives are “barren” for long stretches of time, bearing no fruit at all. Let’s do a little fruit inspection. In the last year, has your life changed? Have lives around you changed? Maybe you too are in a barren period. Author James Michener was raised on a farm. He recalls from his childhood that a neighboring farmer raised apples. One day, young Michener was passing by his orchards and witnessed a strange thing: the neighbor was driving nails in some of the trees that were not bearing fruit. He watched in curiosity as this farmer approached a barren tree and drove four large, rusty nails into the base of the tree, north, south, east and west. Then he moved higher on the trunk of the same tree and repeated the process. When Michener questioned the neighbor, he told the boy, “Just wait until next spring. You’ll understand it then.” When spring rolled around, Michener said that apple tree produced the […]

Lost Your Passion? “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.” Revelation 2:4 NIV I had a busy day today. I woke up about 6 and drove to Baton Rouge for a Kairos meeting and then drove to Alexandria for a second meeting. At each meeting were a dozen or so folks who had given up their Saturday for ministry. It was encouraging. Most were older folks who have served the Lord faithfully for many years. But their enthusiasm for the ministry is as strong as ever. It’s like a good marriage. Happily married older couples have learned the secret of never forgetting their first love. Sure children and grandchildren come and we build homes and careers, but if we will just keep on loving that first love that started it all, the fire stays alive. Jesus praised the church at Ephesus for many good works. They worked hard and endured even during difficult times. They didn’t tolerate sin. They were careful to be faithful to the truths of God’s Word. They did not allow false teachers to lead them astray. They even patiently suffered for Jesus and didn’t give up. However, […]

It’s a New Year and we want to make a change. We want to make a difference.  Chuck Swindoll tells this story:Now, admittedly, some go a little nuts when they decide a change is needed. Larry Walters did. The thirty-three-year-old truck driver had been sitting around doing zilch week in, week out, until boredom got the best of him. That was back in the summer of ’82. He decided enough was enough; what he needed was an adventure. So, on July 2 of that year he rigged forty-two helium-filled weather balloons to a Sears lawn chair in San Pedro, California, and lifted off. Armed with a pellet gun to shoot out a few balloons should he fly too high, Walters was shocked to reach 16,000 feet rather rapidly. He wasn’t the only one. Surprised pilots reported seeing “some guy in a lawn chair floating in the sky” to perplexed air-traffic controllers. Finally, Walters had enough sense to start shooting a few balloons, which allowed him to land safely in Long Beach some forty-five minutes later. When asked why he did such a weird thing, Walters usually gave the same answer: “It was something I had to do . . […]

At Home in Your Heart? I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. —Ephesians 3:16-17   The doorbell rings. You aren’t expecting anyone. You go to the door with a combination of anxiety and anticipation searching your mind for some fact that would explain why you are getting a visitor at this hour. You open the door and there stands Jesus. Your heart jumps with joy but somewhere in your being you hope He doesn’t want to come in. You quickly scan the interior of your house in your mind to decide what room you should escort Him to. Will He know what has happened in each room of your home? Will He hear words that have been spoken? You know He will. His kind eyes say “Aren’t you going to ask me in?” So you do. You notice your laptop on the table and ridiculously hope that He doesn’t ask to use it to check His email. You hear the television softly in […]

Finding Your Contentment in Jesus   Hebrews 13 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,    “Never will I leave you;    never will I forsake you.”[b]   Think about this: What do I really want this year? If you tear away all the extras, what’s the bottom line? For me I think the bottom line is that I want to be content. The first step in being content is to honestly evaluate what I have. The first thing to recognize is that I need to compare myself with the rest of the REAL world, not what I see on TV or imagine others to have. Economically, there is no doubt I am “better off” than most of the world. I have more freedom and opportunity. But the most important thing is that I am better off than most of the world because  I have Jesus. As I face the new year, I want to find  contentment in Jesus, my companionship in Jesus, and my confidence in Jesus. Then I’ll find my comfort and my courage in Jesus.    When I am contented in Jesus and He […]

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” —2 Corinthians 4:7   Greg Laurie tells of a little girl who was asked in her Sunday school class what a saint was. Thinking of the saints in stained glass windows, she replied, “Oh, those are the people the light shines through.” She was right. That is exactly what a saint is: someone whom the light shines through. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). According to Scripture, a saint is a true believer. It seems so difficult for us to have men see our good works, yet glorify the Father. Don’t we love “taking credit.” We do so even when we have little or nothing to do with the outcome. How can we be sure that He gets the glory? It is possible when the light shining through us isn’t ours, but His. Consider:Do things that do not come easily based on our “natural” talents.Do things that He calls you to do; not that which comes naturally.Do things in groups […]