“Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” v. 2 (NLT)
This is the starting point for the Gospel. It hasn’t changed, but sadly, in the church we don’t talk about repentance much because it may make people feel uncomfortable. But, maybe that’s exactly what we need. When we look at the prophets, the Disciples, and even Jesus, we see them calling sin, sin, and addressing the need of repentance.
Repentance means to be so broken by your state of sin, that you are compelled to turn away from it. Repentance is a broken place where only the Super Natural Power of the Holy Spirit, through the power of the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ, can bring effective healing, restoration, salvation, and forgiveness. Nothing else will allow us to be a part of God coming Kingdom!
Today, what areas do you need to be broken of and truly repent from? Are you willing to trade it in for a God Honoring Life?
“That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother,” v. 14 (NLT)
Obedience! Have you ever heard or felt the Lord wanted you to do something? Did you do it? Joseph heard a word from an angel and he had a choice to believe and obey. or disregard and disobey what the angel had said. By Joseph’s obedience, Jesus survives death. Joseph believed what he heard and put his faith in action.
When it comes to obedience, are you doing the things that God ask you to do? Are you going to the places that God is sending you? Why or Why Not?
Today, pray and ask God for direction, then take a leap of faith and follow Him!
“And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus,for he will save his people from their sins.” v 18
From His virgin birth, to his death on a cross, Jesus sole purpose was to Glorify God by rescuing people from their own sin. God had a purpose for his life and Jesus lived each day to fulfill that purpose. His life revealed to us what it meant to love, forgive, encourage, correct, teach, rebuke and how to walk with God. His resurrection provided for us salvation and the forgiveness of sin.
As we begin this journey thru the Gospels I hope you will learn more about Him and make much of His Name in this life, so others can experience Him by your influence. But here is the question I have to ask: Have you trusted Jesus with your life? If not, I encourage you to join with us and read about Him and respond to the Gospel as you get to know Him. If you have trusted Jesus with your life, I encourage you to join with us and begin to pray how you can live out the Gospel on a daily basis.
Today, ask God to reveal who He is so you can respond accordingly to this Gospel we are about to journey through!
It is with a humble heart that I write this letter. For the past three almost four years our family has been blessed beyond measure to serve with and be loved by the people of Grace Community Church. Many of you have prayed with us, cried with us, and laughed with us also, as we learned how to raise two boys; one of them with health issues. We have seen God do miraculous things in our time here and feel that we have made friends for life with many of you. We have also seen God do many things in the life of our Student Ministry. A ministry that has seen students come to know Christ, grow in Christ, and share Christ with their friends. God has truly blessed this ministry in ways that can be seen and in ways that we may not know until we are gathered together as The Church in Heaven. We have great volunteers that truly love God and want to see students love Him also.
God is definitely moving within Fusion, but He is also moving in my heart. For the last 5 months Stephanie and I have been praying about a new venture we believe God is calling us to pursue. In October, I was asked to pray about joining the staff at First Baptist Church in Harvester Missouri serving as their Community Pastor. This past weekend, my family and I visited FBC Harvester, meeting with staff, lay leaders and church members and on Sunday the church voted to call us to serve with them as they reach the St. Charles area for Christ.
Therefore, I am resigning as the Student Pastor of Grace Community Church and am accepting this position as Community Pastor at First Baptist Church Harvester. My last day at Grace will be Sunday, March 13, 2011. On the 13th we will have a Baptism Celebration at the home of Gary and Kim Riddell at 1pm. If you are a believer and have never publically identified yourself with Christ, I would be honored if you would allow me, or another pastor, to baptize you on that Sunday.
Our staff and team will be working through a transition plan that I believe is rock solid. However, I also know that this time of transition will be difficult. There will times of laughter and times of tears, but I hope you all know that our family truly loves you and are truly thankful for the investment you have made in our lives!
“But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,21 and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.” v. 20-21 (NLT)
Encouragement, we all need it! As believers in Christ we are called to support each other and build each other up in the of the Holy Spirit. That sounds like a lot, and sometimes we make encouragement more difficult than it needs to be. So, I want to issue you a challenge today: Encourage someone!
Now I’m not talking about some cheesy form of encouragement just to say that you have done it. I am talking about encouraging someone with heart-felt, Holy Spirit led encouragement! Here’s how.
1. Let them know you believe in them! One of the biggest ways that I am encouraged is when I know people believe in me.
2. Let them know when they do something great or not so great! You have to be careful here because we all want approval. Knowing how and when to encourage is important. Let’s face it, it always easier to tear people down instead of building someone up. Find what they have done well and encourage them. This too can go a long way, and even challenge them to do better the next time they attempt that.
3. Say Thank You! We all have people who have invested in us. A heartfelt thank you can be encouraging and strengthen a friendship in powerful ways!
These are just three ways that we can build each other up. I hope you will encourage someone today and begin the process of encouraging people on a regular basis.
Today, Encourage someone you know by, saying thank you for …, letting them know that they have done a great job at …. , or simply letting them know how much you appreciate them and how much you believe in them.
“Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.” v. 11
Have you ever been influenced in a bad way? Better yet, when it comes to influence, how do you influence others? I think probably all of us at some point have been influenced in a negative way by others. But if we aren’t careful, that negative influence can lead us to place where we never thought we would go and do things we never thought we would do. A negative influence can convince us to do things we once thought were wrong, and somehow begin to justify them as not as bad as we once thought they were. Because of this, we have to be care of who we let influence us. We have to be careful to what we watch, listen to, and believe it of not, even the people we hang out with. All of these things impact us and influence us in negative and positive ways.
Today, how will you be influenced, and how will that influence, influence others?
“Love means doing what God has commanded us, and He has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.” v. 6 (NLT)
Love, what does it look and how would you describe it? All of us have a desire to be loved and somewhere deep in our hearts we are compelled to love. Love is the deepest form of commitment and causes us to think outside of ourselves. It motivates us with an “I’ll do what ever it takes” attitude! You see, when we truly love God, THEN we will truly love people. It’s a catch 22. Understanding that we are loved by God allows us to truly love others. We begin to see people from his perspective and it causes us to think about them instead of only ourselves. Thus, capturing, experiencing, and giving the greatest gift we can ever give someone, Love, no strings attached!
Today, how can you express genuine, pure, selfless love to the people around you? Do something today out of Love for God and others!
“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.” v. 5 (NLT)
Have you ever taken a spiritual? I mean, we understand what it means to have a yearly exam at the doctor’s office. When playing sports in Middle School and High School a physical has to be done before you can play on the school team. But just as a physical is important to make sure we are physically healthy, a spiritual is important to make sure we are spiritually healthy. Think about it, what if we took the same discipline we take in making sure our bodies are healthy, and used the same tenacity to make sure we are spiritually healthy! Because of this I propose the importance of taking a spiritual!
Here are some questions that should be asked during your Spiritual:
1. Have you Surrendered to Christ allowing Him to be Savior and Lord?
2. Are you spending daily time with Him reading the Bible and allowing Him to speak to you?
3. Are you spending daily time with Him in Prayer and allowing yourself to speak to Him?
4. Are you Hiding His Word in your heart by memorizing Scripture?
5. Are your beliefs and lifestyle moving in the same direction?
6. Do your words and actions align or contradict each other?
7. Are you sharing the Gospel with friends, family, and strangers?
8. Are you investing your life in someone else teaching them the things of God and challenging them to develop spiritual habits?
9. Are you serving in a local church?
10. Are you spending your life on eternal things instead of earthly things?
These are just 10 questions of many that should be asked during your spiritual! I want to encourage you to take some time to think thru these 10 questions? If you think of more, great! But lets use this as a starting point to examining ourselves to see if our faith is genuine!
Today, spend some time examining yourself by taking a spiritual! If there are areas you are doing well in, celebrate them and continue pressing in. But if there are areas that need some tweaking, make the adjustments needed to take your faith and journey with Christ to deeper commitments!
“I will gladly spend myself and all I have for you, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me.” v.15 (NLT)
This is the heart of a person who cares deeply for the people. Paul had such a burden and passion to see others know and follow God that he would go to great length to reach and teach them everything he knew in-order to advance Gods Kingdom. However, people weren’t exactly showing him the same love back.
The type of love Paul was expressing included encouragement and rebuking. He didn’t just say the things that the people wanted to hear, he also said the things that they needed to hear. As a result, some started making excuses and pointing fingers back at Paul instead of dealing with the conviction they were feeling in their own heart.
Let’s be honest, it tough to confront someone in a loving way! Many times we are so scared of how it may be perceived and received that we will stay silent because we don’t want to lose that friendship. I get that. But if we really love them, we must learn how to talk about the difficult things with them. It’s not going g to be easy. But instead of worrying about the outcome, let’s share the truth and work through the situation together!
Today, is there a difficult conversation you need to have with someone you love? Will you learn to not just say the things they want to hear, but also share the things they need to hear in love. It may be tough, but Real love isn’t always easy!
“But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.” v 15-16 (NLT)
It was true then and it is true now, Satan is a liar, and he is doing everything he can to deceive as many people as he can, in the time he has left. We don’t have time to go into all the different ways that Satan tries to lead us astray. To be honest, there are way to many to count. But, we can know what the Word of God says … and to be honest, when we know what the Word of God says, we can have a better chance of determining what is truth and what are lies.
I’ll be honest, we live in a world that tries to justify everything! We have become smooth talkers and experts on spinning things to get what we want. If we aren’t careful, we can begin to convince ourselves that something is ok when we know it is wrong. The Bible calls this the Hardening of the Heart. “Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him.” Eph 4:18 (NLT) Knowing the Word of God, Testing the things we hear with the Word of God, and Praying through the Word of God, are the only ways we will be able to know the truth and not be deceived.
Today, what will you believe? We have to understand that the enemy would like nothing more than to lead you and I astray, that’s why it is curtail for us to know the Truth of God’s Word. When we know the truth, the truth will set us free!!!
Dan Gould 