Blog Archives

A Forgiveness Acrostic

8/27/2020

Today I want to share an acrostic poem I found that talks about "Forgiveness."

F ind understanding and compassion in your life.

O pen your heart and share your wisdom.

R each out to embrace others and ease their worried minds.

G ive everyone a chance to make up for their mistakes.

I nside you should always remember that no one is perfect.

V engeance is something that will only make you more miserable.

E very time you forgive you mend another heart with yours.

N ever feel like it is too late to ask for forgiveness and to give it.

E ach day that you wait will only bring you more misery.

S o, open up and embrace your enemy regardless of his past.

S tart by forgiving yourself and work to build a positive future together.

Remembering this acrostic will help you stay in the right attitude towards others. Of course read your Bible.

Colossians 3:13 (ESV) says, “Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

Blessings and Stay Safe,

Pastor Chuck

The Path Of Christian Spiritual Maturity

8/22/2020

Christian maturity doesn’t depend solely on our own strength and effort. If it did, we would be in big trouble because we can’t do it by ourselves.

God supplies us with everything we need to live a godly lifestyle. Jesus gives us the motivation and the power to change spiritually because of His life within us as Christians.

He has also given us all His beautiful promises to equip us for life and godliness. We all need Jesus to mold us and make us after His will and desire; each and every one of us. Spiritual growth involves God’s resources as the foundation, but it is also our own personal responsibility to use diligence in our lives so that we may grow. We need a wiliness on our part to see that we need to change to be more like Christ.

Please read 2 Peter 1:3-8 that gives us direction on our path of spiritual maturity. Verse 3 says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”

Spiritual growth is a life-long process and to do so we need to progress in these seven areas of our lives.

1. Moral Excellence:
We are to grow in the character qualities that marked Jesus. Just as He always obeyed the Father and lived to glorify Him, so should we. It’s the moral courage to live your faith, to do what’s right.

2. Knowledge:
We gain the knowledge of how God wants us to live through His Word. As we put this knowledge to use, it helps us to grow to know Jesus Christ better.

3. Self-Control:
The virtue of one who masters his/her desires and passions.

4. Patient Endurance:
This refers to the ability to endure hardship and distress in the midst of suffering; we stay the course.

5. Godliness:
Respect of God and His will, seeking to please God in everything.

6. Brotherly Affection:
This especially refers to the love that we are to show to others in the family of God.

7. Love:
This is the Greek, agape, which is a self-sacrificing commitment to seek the highest good of the one loved.

We probably all know different people all along this path as well as us. Encourage them toward maturity as well. Pray for them to move to in the right directions. It may take time for us to invest ourselves into helping them. By doing this it will help us to move closer to the place Christ wants us to be, and is a sure sign that we are maturity too.

Blessings and Stay Safe,

Pastor Chuck

God’s Cure For Loneliness And Isolation

8/15/2020

Have you felt that you were all alone and longed to be with people and feel connected to others? This feeling describes the emotion of loneliness. Some other words that people use to describe loneliness include feeling empty, isolated, excluded or left out. We can feel lonely when we are physically alone and we can also feel lonely in the presence of others. Loneliness is really a reflection of whether or not we feel connected to other people.

Some people through the circumstances of life find themselves alone through no fault of their own. Those suffering the death of a loved one. The divorced. Single people. The aged in a nursing home. Even people who begin a new job or are transferred by their employer to a different location.

Multiple reports show that loneliness can be traced to those dealing with various health problems who feel alone. As we get older some people suffer from loneliness, especially when they are isolated from their family members.

While it’s normal to feel lonely from time to time, ongoing loneliness triggers stress that is so potent it affects everyday life. A person may feel tired and lethargic, and less mentally alert. He or she may experience stomach and digestive problems, and other incidents of sickness and disease.

But there is a cure for this feeling, and that is God. God is a God of relationship and community. God, who is the one and only true God, by his very nature, the Trinity, exists in three, the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit.

He meant for life to be experienced together. In the very beginning, He said, “it is not good for man to be alone” in Genesis 2:18. He even made the first man, Adam, a woman named Eve, as his companion, ordained marriage, and created the family. God created us not to be isolated beings, but rather people who live life with others.

God also formed a spiritual family for us to belong to. The Bible calls it the church. We are Christ’s “body.” Colossians 1:24 (ESV) states, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.”

The various “one another” commands in the Bible speak to the importance of being an integral part of a church family. We are called to “belong to one another.” “Care for one another.” Comfort one another.” “Encourage one another.” And “love one another.” When the community of Believers function as God directed no one should ever be alone. Even in this time of separation due to the pandemic in our world we can still connect with each other through the various means of communication.

The nature of our relationships with other Christians is described in the New Testament as koinonia, a Greek word often translated as “fellowship.” It means that we as Christians have communion with one another and participate in life together. Not only that, but we also have communion with Christ and participate in His life and mission. We are members of his body.

God will always be with us so we are never alone. Deuteronomy 31:6 (ESV) says, “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

No matter what circumstance we find ourselves in, He is always with us. Psalm 23:4 (ESV) tell us, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

If you are experiencing any of the symptoms I mentioned in the beginning of this post, start administering the cure. Start drawing closer to God, and trust me, He will draw close to you.

Connect with God through reading Scripture, praying, participating in worship and communion.

Connect with fellow believers includes attending worship services on a regular basis (currently on YouTube and Facebook), participating in a Sunday school class (currently on YouTube and Facebook), Bible study or small group, enjoying times of fellowship, and serving alongside others at events or out in the community. Being a social person, my favorite form of communication and connecting is face to face, in person.

Right now, this is hard to do, but remember, you can still connect with Linda and I, and others online. We offer our Wednesday Night Bible Study and Thursday Morning Women’s on Zoom Conferencing. If you don’t have a computer or tablet, you can connect with us using the telephone.

Reaching out to connect with people who don’t know the Lord is integral to the Christian life as well. As God puts people on your heart, pray for them then the reach out to connect with them. There are so many ways to communicate with people now days.

When we feel isolated and lonely, let’s be like King David, turn to the Lord for comfort, consolation, and strength in Psalm 25:16-21. When we have the Lord in our lives, we are never truly alone.

Remember, the Bible says in 1 Peter 5:7 (ESV), “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

Blessings

Pastor Chuck

Integrity: A True Trait Of A Christian

8/8/2020

One of my wise friends once told me that when we sum up who we are, all we really have is our integrity. Without integrity, no one will trust us or believe us. As Christians it is so important that we maintain our integrity. To witness for Christ we need to show people through our actions, that we live like we say we do.

Integrity has been defined as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. This is an important word for the Christian. It is one of the many traits that affect the way we live each day.

Proverbs 11:3 (ESV), “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.”

We have to ask ourselves, “What guides my life? Do I have a strong desire to be honest in my interactions with others? Do I make decisions based upon strong moral principles? Am I the same when people see me as I am when I’m alone?

James 1:13-15 (ESV), “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Be honest with yourself about temptation and your integrity. God does not tempt us. We tempt ourselves. The World tempts us. Satan and his minions tempt us. What are you reading, watching, doing, listening to, thinking about? Starve your mind of anything that leads you down the wrong road and toward sin. Don’t be dragged away and enticed. Remember that desire conceived gives birth to sin, and sin full grown gives birth to death.

As we think about and consider where our integrity is, we should seek wisdom, guidance and help from our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. We need to commit our character and integrity to Him and ask for His forgiveness first if we have sinned, then ask for forgiveness from those in our lives who we may have hurt. We need to ask the Lord for strength to do the right thing. We also need to ask Him to help us be a person of Christlike commitment and character, just like Joseph.

A Forgiveness Acrostic

The Path Of Christian Spiritual Maturity

God’s Cure For Loneliness And Isolation

Integrity: A True Trait Of A Christian

Author

Archives

Categories