New Series!

Are you the kind of guy that knows he is not the father or husband he should be?  Or, maybe you are not married and are wrestling with your thought life and just can’t seem to overcome it. You may be a guy just struggling with laziness and not getting the work required of you done. You might be the guy that spends time on his computer when no one else is around and gives in to the images that seem so exciting for the moment. If any of these seem to fit you or you have other sins not mentioned, than I am excited to write this post and tell you all about our new series we will be starting on January 10th at 9:00am. Our series will be called Unshackled: Men Breaking Free From the Chains of Sin. In this series we will discuss some tough issues that we face and how to overcome them through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the leadership’s prayer that God will use this series as a means by which we will break free of the sin that holds us down. Please make the effort to attend each of the Saturday mornings offered. We will meet on the second Saturday of every month in the church fellowship hall at 9:00am. We will provide breakfast so come hungry for the Word and for food.

Elder Josh

Understanding Forgiveness

What a great morning we had at our last meeting! We were small in number, but I believe God met with us and I was encouraged. I have been reflecting on the chapter that we read in “Don’t Waste Your Life” called “The Goal of Life-Gladly Making Others Glad in God.” Our discussion on forgiveness was very thought provoking in that how are we to make others glad in God if we are not properly understanding God’s forgiveness. If we do not understand God’s forgiveness, we will not demonstrate proper forgiveness towards others. If we are not demonstrating God’s forgiveness with others, how will we ever succeed in making them glad in God? I thought this was a great paragraph that we read and wanted to post it here to get more thoughts or just post it for you to meditate on.

Why do we cherish being forgiven by God? There are answers to this question that would dishonor him, because there are benefits from forgiveness that a person may love without loving God. We might say, “I cherish being forgiven by God because I hate the misery of a guilty conscience.” Or ” . . . because I hate the prospect of pain in hell.” Or ” . . . because I want to go to heaven to see my loved ones and have a new body with no sickness.” Where is God in these reasons for cherishing forgiveness? In the best case he is there in all these reasons as the real treasure of life.

If so, then these delights are really ways of cherishing God himself. A free and clean conscience enables us to see more of God and frees us to enjoy him. Escape from hell at the cost of Christ’s blood shows us more of God’s commitment to merciful holiness and his desire for our happiness. The gift of seeing loved ones highlights God’s wonder in creating relationships of love. Getting a new body deepens our identification with the glorified Christ. But if God himself is not there in these gifts-and I fear he is not for many professing Christians-then we do not know what forgiveness is for.

Josh

Are You A Risk Taker?

After this mornings discussion from Prayer Breakfast, I have been challenged all day to be a man who takes risks for Jesus. I want to hold him higher, more valuable, and tighter than anything else in my life. I wanted to encourage you all that throughout this month as you take risks, please post what God is doing. It is easy for this to look prideful, but I ask you to search your heart and if you can post trying to glorify Jesus and not yourself, Please Do! We need to hear in what ways God is making us risks takers.

The New Series Has Begun

I have already begun reading through chapter one of the book and I have been challenged! I am very excited to go through this series with all of you and am praying that God would do great things in our midst through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Here is the link to read chapter one online until I order the books.

Also, here is a link to the “Don’t Waste Your Life” website for more information.

I look forward to using this blog as a tool for further discussion and information. Please feel free to post any thoughts and make sure to invite other men to this Bible study!