EXPERIENCE

To Experience God deeper through Worship and Prayer

Have you ever really EXPERIENCED God’s amazing presence? Have you even been in a worship or prayer service where the Holy Spirit showed up and totally “rocked your world”? I like to call that “getting wrecked by God”! Once you EXPERIENCE a moment in God’s presence, you will long for more of them.

My goal for 2010 is to provide opportunities for people to see God do amazing things in their lives. Most people don’t know how to find the Holy Spirit. I will tell you that He likes to hang out where people passionately seek Him. We now provide a monthly Prayer Night (first Wednesday nights of the month) and Multi-Church Worship Nights (our next one is this Friday night - 26th), These nights are designed so that we can come to EXPERIENCE God together as a church family.

In His presence is healing, grace, deliverance, love, clarity, forgiveness, hope, mercy, joy, power….all the amazing things that God provides. It’s almost like finding a buried treasure, when you discover Him you feel you’re the luckiest person in the world. I know God can literally change your circumstances.

You can’t find and EXPERIENCE God if you don’t pursue where He dwells. Diving deep into prayer and worship is a great place to start! Make it your lifestyle.

EXPERIENCE

Let’s be a church where the Holy Spirit dwells!

M

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For Christmas, LeeAnn and I bought both our parents a photo shoot with the amazing Kelli Trontell. It was a great day and I was surprised how much everyone enjoyed it. Just last December, my in laws ended up moving to Tennessee, which now means that our whole family lives here with us. How cool is that?

We are blessed!

M

LOVE & WAR is a marriage book and they candidly discuss their marriage and insights with the reader. You can clearly see that relationships and marriage is something that the Eldredges desire to help. Let’s face it, that’s something all of us need to work on. I recommend this book…

Here’s the book summary:

Summary:

What the Eldredge bestsellers Wild at Heart did for men, and Captivating did for women, LOVE & WAR will do for married couples everywhere. John and Stasi Eldredge have contributed the quintessential works on Christian spirituality through the experience of men and the experience of women and now they turn their focus to the incredible dynamic between those two forces.

With refreshing openness that will grab readers from the first page, the Eldredges candidly discuss their own marriage and the insights they’ve gained from the challenges they faced. Each talks independently to the reader about what they’ve learned, giving their guidance personal immediacy and a balance between the male and female perspectives that has been absent from all previous books on this topic.   They begin LOVE & WAR with an obvious but necessary acknowledgement:  Marriage is fabulously hard.  They advise that the sooner we get the shame and confusion off our backs, the sooner we’ll find our way through.

LOVE & WAR shows couples how to fight for their love and happiness, calling men and women to step into the great adventure God has waiting for them together. Walking alongside John and Stasi Eldredge, every couple can discover how their individual journeys are growing into a story of meaning much greater than anything they could do or be on their own.

You can purchase the book HERE.

This was book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah.

REACH OUT

To REACH OUT and help meet local needs in Spring Hill.

Last year, I watched our new little church REACH OUT and bless a bunch of great organizations and groups that help others. The Well, our local Police Station and the Hope House are just a few. I love to see our people gather around a need and help meet it. I’ve watched people cook meals, give money, babysit, have people over for dinner and do countless other things to show people Christ’s love. When we REACH OUT despite our own needs, it really does amazing things.

I know many of our people were really affected by the economy  but that didn’t stop them from giving out of their needs. That’s what this goal is all about. If we waited to help other when our needs were met, we would miss the amazing blessing that God has for us. When you lack money, give your time. When you lack time give your prayers. There’s always a way to REACH OUT when you are purposeful in looking for it.

This year we are going to continue ministering to needs in our local area as well as branching out on our first mission’s trip to Mexico. We will host ComeBack Events (events in local parks where we give out free food, prizes, and kiddie games) this spring and summer. We will continue to look to help other churches as well (through combined worship events, combined youth groups and prayer). We even have some new ideas we are working on for showing people in this community that God loves them and thinks the world of them.

REACH OUT

There are so many needs but we are sent here to help meet them with God’s love.

M

GROW

To Challenge people to GROW deeper with God through devotions , small groups and accountability (relationships).

We want to foster a community of people that love to move further in their desire to know the one true God that created them for a relationship with himself. This doesn’t just happen, it takes us actively pursuing him.

-Devotions and prayer time with God alone is where it starts.

-Small Groups continues the journey.

-Developing relationships with others, on the same journey for accountability, encouragement, strength, support and guidance, is another way to complete the transformation.

We can’t do this alone. We need to GROW. We need to learn more about this creator that died to set us free. Salvation is the door…GROWING is the journey.

We start up 4 separate small groups (2 men’s / 2 women’s) in hopes that our church connects into them and understands it’s more than a “book club”. It’s more than a Christian AA meeting. It’s doing life together, learning together and studying together with a desire to see God transform us together as a church family. If we stay the same, we miss out on all God has for us. If we don’t spend time with him, we don’t understand him. If we don’t reach out to others for relational community we miss the whole point of church. Helping each other along this journey to reach their potential.

GROW.

It’s what we were created to do…

M

GROW

To challenge people to grow deeper with God through devotions, small groups and accountability.

REACH OUT

To reach out and help meet local needs in Spring Hill.

EXPERIENCE

To experience God deeper through Worship & Prayer.

ANSWER THE CALL

To find the calling on your life and the area of serving that God has for you.

TOUCH

To search for ways to touch someone, in your immediate sphere of influence, with God’s love

-I think Forgiveness can really get used as a way for Christians to sit back and do nothing. Sometimes God desires us to rise up against the forces that try to put us down. Of course God commands us to forgive but do we sit back and allow the evils of the world to continue to get their way….heck no. There are times to stand up and say, NO MORE! To say God says to “turn the other cheek” to injustice is just not bibically correct.

-I love the fact that God DOESN’T FORGET our past or even our sins…but he does choose to not respond to us in light of those sins…how powerful is that?!?! To forget is an easy out…to CHOOSE to look past them and still love me and use me is AMAZING!

-King David is such an amazing & encouraging story about the power of God’s forgiveness.

-Love this quote - “Healing takes time…Forgiveness is a decision lived out as a lengthy process.”

-Although we suffer the consequences of our sin, God will give us 2nd, 3rd, 4th…chances. When you’ve been given a 2nd chance you realize how amazing this is.

-Don’t seek revenge….Read Romans 12:17-21 and you will see how amazing our “defender” is.

-One way to think about Trust is that it takes so much time to get it back….remember that next time you are ready to make a dumb decision.

-Love this quote as well - “Remember Christ died for sins he never committed to forgive people that had no right to be forgiven.”

-I’m glad God remembered and added the stories of David’s, Paul’s, Adam’s, Moses’s sins in the Bible. I’ve learned so much from what they have done wrong. Make that your mission as well. Although you’ve messed up, use it to help others not make the same mistakes. That’s one of the keys to “all things work together for good to those that love Him”.

-Watch out for Alexander the Metalworker!

-I hope this series challenges everyone to read the Word and find out what God really says. If you don’t agree with something, get in the Word and see what God’s thoughts are on it. Don’t just take my word for it…and if I mess up…I hope you Forgive me!

M

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