***ALL BLOGS ARE NOW FOUND BY CLICKING HERE***

Leadership & Staff Blogs

Welcome to our leadership blog page. Our leaders and Staff use this page to write to you about important events happening in their lives and the spiritual insights God is showing them. We encourage you to check back often!

• By default the most recent blog is show below.
• You can use the Select by Author option (to the right) to see all blogs,
  starting with the most recent, by a particular author.
• You can use the Select by Date option (to the right) to see a blog posted
  from a particular date.

---

Cloudy with a chance for change
by Lewis McNeely on Monday, Dec 28th, 2009 at 03:51 pm
  As we cross into January 1 nothing any different is really happening in the universe simply because it is a new year. It is only the measurement of another journey of our fair planet around the Sun. Still, it is an excellent time for both introspection and external inspection of where we are in Christ and our life in general. The new year is a great time to measure where you have been, where you are now, and where you are going. 2nd Corinthians 13 verse 5 "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!”  God encourages us to look at the milestones in our lives then, like Paul, forget what is behind and take hold of that for which Christ has taken hold of us.     I think human beings often times, through habit and sometimes though overwork or underwork, fall easily into the rut of meaningless routine. Many are still doing the same thing and are at the same place spiritually they were 10 years ago. That's well and fine if that's what Jesus is calling you to. Nothing inherently evil about routine. The problem is if that routine is clouding out the call of God in your life. Matthew speaks of "The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful."  I believe this merry-go-round of routine is often the source that prolongs undealt-with inner pain.   Some don't like to discuss calling or anything that would remotely suggest reaching higher than the status quo. They feel tired, beat down, defeated and irrelevant. Still, we must be honest with ourselves and call our heart as it really is.  I think many believers are blinded by the cloud of their daily routine. If that's you it's time to get away. Take a prayer retreat. Get alone somehow and spend quality time examining your life.  Where are you spiritually, emotionally financially? How are your friend and family relationships? Are these thing where you want them to be or even more, where HE wants them to be? If not, what can you do in His strength to change it? I believe the enemy of faith is memory. Remembering all the times your tried and failed. Once you have learned from it what God desires, you must forget the past. Smith Wigglesworth, the great man of God said "If you look back act back or think back God cannot use you".     The best way to rid your life of meaningless routine is to wake up spiritually, shake yourself and try something different. Maybe even RADICALLY different. Of course all in God’s plan and timing. The only person in the Parable of the Talents who received rebuke was the one who was afraid to take a risk. I would rather fail trying to do the will of God than hide my calling in the ground because I am afraid of defeat.  Besides, our Father is not a hard being who delights in punishing us. He knows the plans He has for us and they are good plans. "For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."  1st Thessalonians 5:9.   I think we do not reach our full potential because we are afraid to try, afraid to fail and afraid of change.  Let's turn off our TVs, Ipods, laptops and X-box's for a short while (if not longer) at the first of this year. Let's tune in to something new, something right, something fully in Him. Then, maybe a year from now you will not recognize your life and only for the better. 

Click Here to Leave A Comment.
Please note all blog posts must be approved before they will be posted.

---

 

Select by Author

Bob Bevan
Chris Cummings
Jonnie Shumate
Lewis McNeely
Mary Benton

Select by Date

06-16-10
02-22-10
02-17-10
01-28-10
01-20-10
01-13-10
01-05-10
12-28-09
12-19-09
12-17-09
12-10-09
12-07-09
05-27-09
03-16-09
02-22-09
02-02-09
01-02-09
11-06-08
08-10-08
07-11-08
06-06-08
04-10-08
02-05-08
11-30-07
08-29-07
08-06-07
06-18-07
06-14-07
06-11-07
05-10-07

Calendar

read more »

Pastor's Blog

God Will Never Give Up On You
Posted 8/31 by Larry Cockerham...
read more »

Staff Blog

The Mystery of Tears
Posted 6/16 by Lewis McNeely...
read more »

Recommended
Media

see more »