Tuesday, September 07, 2010

FOCUS

This is actually the introductory letter from Pastor Carter on his newsletter. God's been giving us this message for a while now.

Dear Friend,

Are you one of the many people today who harbor grave concerns about the future? Whether it’s on a global, national or personal level, the storms of our time seem to be taking on an intensity we have not known before.

In these times, the lessons of Scripture can become our greatest comfort. I am reminded of another day and another storm which believers in Jesus Christ had to face (Mark 4:35–41). Self-concern so gripped these early believers that they lost focus—and then they lost faith. Two things are worth noting in the Scripture. Firstly, we see that they were indeed going to the other side and that Jesus was with them in the journey. Secondly, there were “other little ships” alongside them (v. 36), trying to make the same journey without the relationship with the Savior which they enjoyed. I believe the disciples lost faith in the midst of the storm because they lost focus. When they feared for themselves, they lost sight of God and those around them.

God wants to give you His heart for other people. Ask Him for the capacity to care, as He does, about where those in our generation will spend eternity. I have personally found that fear gives way to faith as I allow God to perfect His love for others within me.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Carter Conlon
Senior Pastor


I encourage you all to read the full Newsletter.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

the Cost

This is an excerpt from A.W Tozer's Success and the Christian: The Cost of Spiritual Maturity. I encourage you all to meditate on these truths:

I want to tell you that it costs to know Jesus Christ... It costs, and most people won't pay the price for it at all. That's why most Christians are common. They won't go on because for Christ's sake, they have surrendered evil things - that is, things that are injurious and things that are unclean and grossly sinful; but they are unwilling to surrender "good things."

There are certain things we won't do and for Christ's sake we have surrendered those evil things. But this is the mark of a common Christian and the man who's never gone beyond that is a mediocre Christian...

As a little child will take his teddy bear to bed with him, so we grownups have our "teddy bears" too. We have what to God must look like teddy bears and dolls. We hang on to them. A baby, of course, has a right to that... But the point I'm making is that we oldsters, we mature people, people even in their teens, when we still insist upon hanging on to things, we will worship them. Whatever you hang on to, you worship because it gets between you and God, whether it be property or family or reputation or security or your life itself. Jesus taught that we couldn't even hang on to our life itself...

Any external treasure that touches your heart is a curse. [Apostle] Paul said, "I give that up so I might go on to deeply enriched and increasing intimacy and vast expanses of knowledge of the One who is intimate and illimitable in His beauty and I go on to know Him. And that I might know Him, I give all this up." He never allowed anything to touch his heart. (pp.19-21, emphasis mine)