We Stand UnitedWe Stand United will be our theme on Sunday, September 11. We will remember the 15thanniversary of the attack on America when planes were used as weapons as they hit the Twin Towers in New York. Do you remember what you were doing on that day? It is hard to believe that there are children who know nothing about this tragic event. It has made it in the history books but there is no comparison from reading the story to watching it live on national television. This will always be a day to remember forever.
There was also another event that happened on this site, or at least very close to it back on April 30, 1789. American history tells us that George Washington, America’s first president, gave his first inaugural address from the Senate balcony of Founder’s Hall on Wall Street in NYC. He later led an entire delegation of dignitaries up the street to St. Paul’s church for a prayer service to ask God’s blessing.
What is so significant about St. Paul’s church where Washington led the nation to a prayer service? I am glad you asked. St Paul’s church is adjacent to ground zero. In fact, when the towers fell, one of the only places not destroyed, was this church. Another interesting fact is that the ground that the twin towers rested on was once owned by this church.
If you go to googleearth.com and type in ground zero, it will take you to the site. To the right you’ll see an area with several trees next to the site. That is St. Paul’s chapel. If you go to the street level, you’ll see that the properties are next to each other. I don’t think that is a coincidence.
Prayer ought to be the focal point of every activity under the sun. It ought to be promoted from the highest position of the land. This fall we will be voting for the next president of the United States of America. I believe that we would see a change if the person we voted in to this office placed importance on prayer as our first president did.
I have been reading the Old Testament and came across Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 3:9. He says,“So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
Look at God’s response, “The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, ‘Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but or discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.’” God goes on to say that He will give him wealth, long life, and honor if he would continue to obey Him. That is what I am praying for. I am praying for leaders who recognize that without God in the center of all things, our Nation will be lost. I choose to have faith over fear. God knows what He is doing.
Pray for our service coming up on September 11 as we invite the local law enforcement in so we can pray for their protection and safety.
Have a blessed day as you show people what it is to live with the peace and assurance of knowing the right from wrong as you follow Jesus closer than ever.
Joy in Jesus!
Pastor Mike
Staying the Course
“After the whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel” Judges 2:10.
When you look at history, you will see that the Israelites would move in and out of close relationship with the Lord. One minute they were following God in covenant and following closely the leader the Lord had provided. The next minute they were rebelling and serving other gods. Many times their plight was dependent on the leader’s heart and the direction he would take them. There were many kings who did not serve the Lord and the people would follow suit. The result was a whole generation growing up and not recognizing the Lord, therefore, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. It just reminds us how important it is to live and follow the one and only true God and be about passing that faith on to the next generation. Other things will try to distract us and get us off course, but we are to be wise to the things of God and the things of this world, and be able to discern the difference. How can a people pass on something they are not carrying themselves? To think that a whole generation could drift away from the Lord is alarming.
It reminds us that we need to live out our faith daily. Just because you experienced revival last year doesn’t mean you are still living in that reality. It’s good that you were close to the Lord last month – but that doesn’t ensure that you are this month. You practiced the presence of the Lord last week. What about this week?
In his book Dry Bones Can Live Again, Robert Coleman reflects on the importance of staying close to God: “What we may fail to comprehend is that the fruits of revival can endure only as the conditions of revival are maintained. There must be spiritual openness to the Spirit’s direction. As He leads on to deeper truths in Christ, we must follow. Where we see a wrong deed or attitude in our own life, obedience to Christ demands that we confess our sin, forsake it, and by faith in the covenant of grace renew our dedication.”
Let me encourage you today to keep the fire of the Spirit burning in your heart. Don’t let the flame go out. As Paul reminded Timothy let me remind you:
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:6-7
Be faithful with the faith in God that you have received from Him. Give it away to your children and those who are in your sphere of influence. Then seek the Lord with all your heart to replenish what you have given away.
I am looking forward to a great day of worship on Sunday.
Joy in Jesus!
Pastor Mike
Love’s Response“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” John 15:12 (NLT)
Love is the root system that anchors and enables us to fulfill Christ’s desire that we, His followers and representatives in this world, be unified. Without it, we don’t stand the slightest chance of standing with one another, much less being one. So our unity starts right here with these three words: love each other.
It would be a lot easier to love because I have developed the habit of love than to just love out of the overflow of my heart. One way of being committed to the church would be doing things out of duty. Doing things out of duty somehow seems too mechanical. I love because I have to. How about loving first and then do the things and love people out of that love instead of out of duty? There would be so much less burnout. What a concept – by loving and not doing it out of duty I continue to do the things I love to do without the burnout.
What makes all of this possible is the very word Jesus uses for love. It’s the Greek word agape, and it doesn’t refer to the conditional “scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours” type of love that this world is used to. It’s unconditional love that flows from being in the presence of God. It isn’t something we find within ourselves; it comes from being grounded in God. It’s poured into us by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
Have you ever had an experience in your life where you really sensed those around you unconditionally loved you? My prayer is that you experience that here at Findlay First Nazarene. Why not take the unconditional love God pours into you and give it away to others? If you can do that, it will come back to you in ways only God can orchestrate.
This Sunday as I continue my series, “Maneuvering the Ships of Life,” I will be talking about discipleship. Without discipleship, we would stay on spiritual milk the rest of our lives. As I look around, I don’t see many people still on their bottles from when they were a baby, but I have seen a few bibs. That’s another story for another day.
Don’t forget to plan on coming to the Picnic on the Lawn this Sunday at 5:00 p.m. It’s going to be a great day of worship as we gather together in Jesus’ name on Sunday morning, and a great day of fellowship on Sunday night as we gather for a meal together. Bring a lawn chair, a side dish, your family, and come meet some new people. Both services will merge together for a wonderful time.
Joy in Jesus!Pastor Mike
On Christ, the Solid Rock
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. “
Matthew 7:24-27
This is part of Jesus message called, “The Sermon on the Mount.” It is a powerful message straight from the One who is able to live these truths out of our lives through His Holy Spirit. Notice that it didn’t say, “If the storms come.” It says, “When the storms come.” We will all experience the storms of life. They will not all be the same storm each time. Some will be more severe than others. They come in the form of physical challenges, temptations, relational misunderstandings, and just hard times.
Jesus promised that lives built on the foundation of obedience to His teachings would not be washed out during times of temptation. In his book The Sermon on the Mount, Clovis Chappell expressed this truth as follows: “The buildings we are constructing, the characters we are making are going to be tested. For this reason we are not to build for fair weather only. We must build with a view to hours of crisis. Upon you, and you, and you some day the storm will surely break. The building of the foolish man is going to be tested, but the building of the wise man is going to be tested too. God does not coddle His saints. But there are those, thank God, that are going to pass through the testing without loss and outride all storms.”
Could it be that the storms of life come to reveal how strong your foundation really is? Many times we think that they are only to test us to see if we can withstand the storm. I want you to consider today that they are like a mirror, revealing how prepared you are.
The bottom line of Jesus’ famous sermon was that people must not only hear His words but also obey them. The main point – that obedience to the truths Jesus taught lays a solid foundation for all of life. It applies to individuals, churches, and nations. Since the illustration takes place in a house, what could be more appropriate than for a family or household to take these matters to heart?
This Sunday several of our new parents will be bringing their babies and dedicating them to the Lord. They are bringing their children to Jesus at the beginning of their life, recognizing that they are a gift and that Jesus has entrusted them to raise them up in Christ and the Church. This is laying a foundation of faith in their life, asking the Lord to help them teach them to put Him first in their lives, as they model what it is to be totally committed to Jesus. I can’t think of a better example of this Scripture than that. And to think that we as a congregation play a role in this as well. Don’t miss out on this blessing as we support these families with our prayers.
So whether you are in the midst of a storm or you are experiencing a restful time – saturate in the Word and God and allow Jesus to transform you by the renewing of your mind. I guarantee that God will use your obedience, prayers, and times of renewal for His glory.
May God give you his grace as you walk in obedience to the One who was, is, and is to come…
Joy in Jesus!
Pastor Mike
www.findlayfirstnaz.org
What Standard Are You Living Up To?
Is it possible that someone could live their life according to the world’s standards so much that they become calloused to the things of God? Can someone who once had a growing relationship with God ignore the signs and become calloused to the things of God? The Apostle Paul evidently thought this could happen as he writes Ephesians 4:17-5:20.
Corrie ten Boom reflects on the key to holiness in her book, “Not I, but Christ.” She writes, “A pickpocket once said: ‘I became a Christian. In the past I stole fifty or sixty watches every week, but I don’t do that anymore. Now I only steal five or six.’ Perhaps you laugh at that pickpocket, but are you and I often not just like him? No, we don’t steal – we just dodge taxes a little bit. If you do it cleverly, that is all right, isn’t it? No, that is not all right. Nothing like this is all right. Now, it is possible to live a clean and holy life, because the Lord is with us.”
The Apostle Paul writes about putting off the old self and putting on the new self, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24). Take the time to read through Ephesians 4:17-5:20. As you read through this passage, make note of the bad habits you need to overcome as well as the qualities you need to embrace. We are to be imitators of Christ, living lives of love, just as Christ loved us; be made new in the attitude of our minds; being filled with the Spirit. These are the qualities that stir the fires of personal revival and keep us from hardening our hearts.
This Sunday we will continue in our series, “Maneuvering the Ships of Life,” as we begin to look at friendships and how they can raise us up or tear us down.
Do whatever it takes to let the light of Christ shine through your life today.
Joy in Jesus!
Pastor Mike
