A FRESH START! Happy New Year!

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” 

 John Pierpont Morgan

New Years is the PERFECT time to reflect on where you’ve been and resolve yourself to whatever it takes to bring CHANGE to your situation!

Mark 2: 1-5 Notice here how these men, as well as the afflicted man, were willing to do whatever it takes to get to the feet of Jesus... are we willing to do whatever it takes to experience our FRESH START?

Mark 5:25-34 A Woman is a place of distress. She has a NEED. She is stressed and needs the power of God.   1. She makes a choice to grab!   2. She experiences without doubt.   3. She admits her condition and knows the need to continue following!

To EXPERIENCE your FRESH Start...  A hard reality is that we have to LET GO and LET GOD!

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 We have to realize that HE is the “change agent” though... we have to have the Faith to move toward him, but HE has to be allowed to do the changing in us! It is by HIS Spirit that we see our world begin to change! Zachariah 4:6

Our faithfulness to move in His direction will bring about His touch and move in our direction. John 5:1-15 The story of a paralyzed man who is UNABLE to move toward the pool and felt helpless and hopeless in his condition. However, when Jesus approached him with the question...”do you want to be well?” His answer was YES! And look what a change he underwent!!!!

Do you want a FRESH START? Jesus holds your answers!

Christmas LOVE! Do you know it? Will you GIVE IT?!

Christmas, my child, is love in action.

Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.

Dale Evans

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

1 John 4:7-8

Are you WILLING to LOVE? Sometimes we are not. We want to, but we are wounded or inhibited because of our circumstances or feel weighed down and want to concentrate only on ourselves.

LOVE is a CHOICE. Lets look at John 3:16… “because God so loved the world, he sent His only Son! He didn’t have to do that. He CHOSE to love us that much!

The scriptures teach us that we love BECAUSE He first loved us! So… when we understand the depth, the width and the enormity of His love for us… then we MUST CHOOSE to love others with the same kind of Love!

As read in our Advent reading this morning… there are 3 types of Love: Agape, Phileo and Eros… there are actually 6 forms of love in the Greek, but 2 of them speak to the LOVE OF CHRISTMAS… Agape and Phileo. agape – which is a pure, selfless, unconditional love, the highest form of love, the love shown by Jesus, Himself. Phileo, which refers to a brotherly, or friendship-type of love is also a type of love that Jesus expects us to exhibit. 
John 21:15-17

This Christmas… let’s demonstrate the LOVE of the Father that He showed to us and make the effort or “choose” to love others with that same kind of love!

In the next couple of days… HOW CAN YOU Love someone with the LOVE of Jesus?! Think about that!

Here are some PRACTICAL WAYS that you can SHOW LOVE to someone this Christmas...

1. Call, Text or better yet... go see someone who you care about and TELL them that you love them! We assume people already know this... but they LOVE to hear it and feel it!!

2. Bake some cookies or find a little gift that you can drop off or share with someone else

3. We visited Chimes Terrace the other day... and I heard many of the residents say that they will not go with other family or friends and will be sitting home on Christmas Eve and Day! Wouldn't it be cool if you would knock on their door and when they open the door... just simply say you were thinking about them today and you just wanted to say Merry Christmas and to tell them that they were loved and watch and see what happens!

4. Know of someone you could invite to your house to share in the warmth of just being together at Christmas? 

5. Go take coffee to all the cops up at the Police Dept or to the Firefighters who are on duty Christmas Day

6. Buy a poinsettia and then go to someone's house who is kind of a "to themselves type of person" and then put the flower with a card on it that just says I LOVE YOU with the LOVE OF JESUS! ...knock on the door or ring the bell and RUN AWAY so they don't see you... just the flower... when they open the door!!!

7. Buy a toy or a treats of their pet(s)... that's a precious member of their family! Maybe their ONLY family!

See what I mean? We have to CHOOSE (no matter what we do) to LOVE. 

Will you do it?!

The Weary World Rejoices with JOY!

The Wonderful Life is not something that is measured by how “easy” we have it...or by “what we have”… but rather by the way we experience the

presence of God every single day!

John 10:9 – “They (that’s us) will come in and go out and find pasture.”

Experiencing the JOY of HEAVEN happens when we realize that everything we have....is a direct result of what HE has provided!  John 10:10

God SUPPLIES everything we need and MORE!  He Saves! He Forgives! He Restores!  He Heals! He Provides! He Comforts! He Gives Peace! He is our Strength! He is all this and more!

Feeling SAFE allows us to experience the JOY of HEAVEN here on Earth!

John 10:11-12  When we face the TERRORS of this life...there is one who will Lay Down His Life for us!  Psalm 91

The Jewish people at the time of Jesus’ birth... we being oppressed. The Messiah was to be someone who would free them from this tyranny. However, the “freeing” was not something that was outward... but rather something that started on the INSIDE of a person!

Look around you... are there people around you that are in BONDAGE? Is someone you know empty and depressed because of their circumstances? 

Share the JOY of Jesus and a Relationship that will change a life from the inside...out, and then people can truly experience...

IT REALLY IS A WONDERFUL LIFE

WHEN JESUS IS AT THE CENTER OF IT!

Merry CHRISTmas Friends!

The Weary World Rejoices with LOVE

The Weary World Rejoices!

“Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” – Mother Teresa

1 John 4:7-21 In this passage of scripture... we learn that REAL love comes from ONLY ONE PLACE!

Do YOU look for Love in all the WRONG places?!

God’s promise to His Creation was that His Love would be ABUNDANT!

Exodus 34:6-7

Does the Love of God Sound Too Good To Be True? Then MEASURE it!

1.     God’s GIFT of Love to you is measured by its USEFULNESS!

a.     Vs 9 – The Usefulness is this...”that we might have LIFE!”

b.     "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." John 10:10

2.     God’s gift to you is measured by its COST.

a.     John 3:16 There is no greater cost than self sacrifice! Listen to the parents of children killed this past week share of how their children’s life is touching so many around our country!

3.     God’s present to you is measured by its EFFECTIVENESS.

a.     REAL Love realized creates CHANGE in us that then begins to flow out of us! – Psalm 51

1 John 4: 9-11 If God’s REAL LOVE that was born in a manger, that lived and died and was raised from the dead...has entered YOUR heart... then LIVE OUT that REAL LOVE by loving others!

Discover REAL LOVE that comes from ONLY one place...Jesus!

Embrace it...Walk IN it.... and Give it away to someone else!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Jesus... The HOPE of Glory!

As We Begin the 2015 Season of Advent 

The Staff, The Leaders and Volunteers of Faith Fellowship

Wish YOU and YOURS the Most Blessed of Christmas Celebrations!

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”

Desmond Tutu

The Living Christ is the source of our new birth and our Living Hope. If you have a Living Hope in the Living Christ you can deal with your past pain and present difficulties because of your future blessings and Soon Coming Hope of Heaven!

1 Peter 1: 3-6 – As the weary world moves…we can REJOICE because He came to give us HOPE! Hope gives us confidence and lets us live with inner strength for we know that one day we will be radically different than we are now!

The Birth of Jesus, His Life and Death and Resurrection give us    3 kinds of HOPE…

1.     A LIVING HOPE  - John 1:1 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it!

We LIVE because HE came…Lived, Died and lives forever!

2.     A FUTURE HOPE - This is our story as believers. Through

      Jesus Christ, we have gone from having nothing to having

      everything: new life, new hope, and an eternal inheritance   

            in heaven that nothing can destroy. Being co-heirs with

           Jesus Christ means we have an inheritance reserved or

            kept in heaven (Gal. 5:5) that's beyond anything we can

            imagine (1 Cor. 2:9-10). Jesus said, “I am going to prepare

            a place for you.” What a place heaven will be. What a time

            that will be! That calls for praise on our part, doesn't it?

3.     A PRESENT HOPE - we are kept by the power of God. It’s

not us holding on to Him. It’s Him holding on to us! Romans 8: 37-38 We are MORE than conquerors!

Nothing can separate us from His Love!

The Seven Deadly Sins - Part 7 GREED

“So the un-wanting soul sees what's hidden, and the ever-wanting soul sees only what it wants or thinks it needs.”

Heb 11:1 Faith is the essence of what we hope for and the evidence of what we cannot see.

Without Faith, it is impossible to see God. Heb. 11:6

Faith > Flesh = Godliness

Faith < Flesh = Separation

Matt 9:16-25 The Story of the Rich Young Ruler. The “hole in his life” was being filled with everything but God. His possessions, his actions and his way of thinking (selfish thinking).

Greed is a sin that infects us to the place where is becomes something that blinds us from the truth that we too need to SELL OUT and turn from the path we are CHOOSING to walk on and give our WHOLE selves to Jesus.

“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves

and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.”

2 Chronicles 7:14 if MY people who are called by my name will HUMBLE THEMSELVES… and PRAY… and TURN FROM their wicked ways… THEN I will hear their cry and will HEAL their land.

Our Land is “our own heart”. God is calling us to make our Faith GREATER THAN our Flesh. We must pray and invite the Holy Spirit to do what we cannot. We have to CHOOSE (moment by moment) to TURN from the OLD WAY of thinking and doing! We have to TRUST GOD to create in us a CLEAN heart and to renew a RIGHT spirit within us!  Remember though… HIS GRACE IS GREATER THAN ALL OUR SIN! Go and sin no more!

The Seven Deadly Sins  Part 6  GLUTTONY

“A glutton is one who runs to the icebox for a cure to a spiritual malnutrition. That we use our possessions to camouflage a bankrupt emotional and perhaps…spiritual life. Because we seek status and position to camouflage our low self-esteem. We run after anything and everything to camouflage our fear of becoming nothing. “

Frederick Buechner

Joshua 7:9-16 Achan’s Sin of Gluttony not only kills him, but hurts ALL!

Isa 55:1-2 Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

Gluttony will kill us. Both PHYSICALLY and EMOTIONALLY and eventually… SPIRITUALLY.

When we think of Gluttony… immediately our thoughts go to over eating!

However… Gluttony is so much more than that! Its tied to ADDICTION.

A glutton is a person who is given to loose and excessive living. In the NT it was used to describe someone who has an uncontrolled or excessive fondness for some specified object or pursuit. Its wanting something so much that it takes control of our lives!

Eccl 2:10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

We “obsess” on things to fill the void in our lives that ONLY Jesus can fill.

John 6:35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

Hebrews 12:1-2 We have to THROW off the things that are killing us and fix our eyes on Jesus! We must FORCE ourselves to do this!

The Seven Deadly Sins Series - Part 5 - SLOTH

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death”

Proverbs 14:12

I'm personally frightened by procrastination and laziness… 

I’m more frightened by not using whatever abilities I've been given.

Denzel Washington

The Deadly Sin of SLOTH

Matt 25:14-30 – Note: The Master is concerned with HOW the servants handle themselves when it came to WHAT THEY DID with the talents.

The Sin of SLOTH is something that directly affects how we will experience the Kingdom of God and how we will engage the Mission of His Kingdom!

SLOTH can be a form of LAZINESS, but it can also describe the choices we make with what we have been given…HOW we choose to focus our efforts.

God knows us better than we know ourselves. He bestows on us different responsibilities – different gifts – different talents and skills – But, He also expects us to use those skills. He expects us to take what we have been given and use them in a way that benefits the overall Kingdom. They come with responsibilities attached!

Vs 21 & 23 Sharing in the Master’s Happiness is found when we are faithful with the things he entrusts to us! As we grow closer to Him… we KNOW HIS HEART!

The solution to SLOTH is to continue growing closer to Jesus! To know His heart! To ACT in response to it!

1 Cor. 13:11 – Put away the OLD WAY of doing things. ACT in a way that shows we are growing in our understanding of Christ!

Love God…. Care for One Another… No matter the cost!

Don’t be LAZY… “Just Do It!”