Numb

 

It’s a strange experience when a hand or foot goes numb. We’re so used to feelings that we have a hard time navigating ourselves without them. I had a friend whose leg went numb after a motorcycle accident. Years later he was pinned to the ground by a tractor which had tipped over while he was driving it on a hill. It took several minutes to get the tractor off him. When he was finally able to get up, he was shocked to see that the tractor exhaust pipe had burned his numb leg severely. Sometimes numbness can be disastrous. 

There is a spiritual numbness which is equally destructive. It starts to creep into a person’s relationship with God when the individual begins to dabble in things the Lord has clearly instructed us to leave alone. As time goes on, their sensitivity to right and wrong begins to blur. The serious consequences of sin diminish and a sort of cheap grace thinking sets in: “I’m forgiven, right? So, what’s the big deal if I walk on the wild side a little?” 

The core truth of Christianity is God makes us right with him through what Christ did for all humans on the cross and through his coming back to life. People receive the benefits of what Jesus did not by working to earn them, but by believing them to be true. Belief, however, is always followed by changed behavior. If one’s behavior doesn’t change, there is a good chance what one believes is not in Jesus. 

If you see a disconnect between what you believe about Jesus and what you see in your life, join us for one of our weekend services. It may be time to get rid of the numbness and let Jesus put feeling into your heart again. 

Worship service times: Saturday: 6:00 pm, Sunday: 9:00 am & 10:30 am.

Why Do We Always Need to Be Right?

 

We’ve come to the end of another week. How many heated discussions did you have with friends or family members over who was right about some very minor, unimportant issue? Surely at least one and probably more. In fact, you might even still be on bad terms with that person over your battle about who was right and who was wrong. What makes the whole issue even more incredibly ridiculous is that in most of these disagreements, there is no right or wrong. Can anyone say definitively that there is only one distinct place on the kitchen shelf where the salt and pepper must be placed? 

Still, we pass our lives reliving petty debates, agonizing over what we could have said to have been more convincing, justifying our angry emotions at being contradicted. Why? Why do we live this way? It all has to do with the way we look at ourselves. We are looking out for #1. If you are a Christian, you know that shouldn’t be, but still there seems to be this irresistible urge to make everyone conform to the way you want them to be. That is why God has to change you and all the rest of us who claim to be followers of Jesus. 

We’re studying the New Testament book of First Corinthians. It’s a letter the apostle Paul wrote to a group of Christians in the Greek city of Corinth about 52 AD. Not surprisingly, those believers were just like Christians today. They didn’t get along all that well because each one always had to be right. Isn’t it about time to break the mold? If you’re ready for a change, a God change, in your dealings with other people, join us for one of our weekend services. The changes God works aren’t always pleasant at first, but they are always revolutionary. 

Worship service times: Saturday: 6:00 pm, Sunday: 9:00 am & 10:30 am.

Foolish or Wise?

 

“Am I foolish or wise?”

An important question. A sensitive question. A highly controversial question.

Nobody wants to play the fool. Everybody wants to be known as wise. To err in this matter means a person has pretty much wasted their life. And that certainly is not anyone’s goal!

But what is wisdom and where does a person get it? Those are questions philosophers have wrestled with for centuries. But they aren’t the only ones who are concerned with wisdom and foolishness. Almost every human being struggles with these issues on a daily basis.

Dedicating one’s life to following a crucified Jewish preacher who lived 2000 years ago seems like near insane foolishness to many people. And some even express this opinion quite vociferously. It’s an attitude that has been around as long as people have followed that Jewish preacher named Jesus. What they do not accept or understand is that the crucified preacher didn’t stay dead and there is excellent historical evidence to support that statement.

If Jesus is alive, then he is exactly who he said he is – God. And if he is God, then the most foolish thing a human being could do is reject the wisdom he offers.

This week we begin a sermon series on the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians named: God’s Change in Our Lives. That change begins with our thinking – especially in respect to what is wise and foolish. If you feel like you are living in a world in which wisdom and foolishness are fluid, changing from day to day, join us for one of our weekend services. Your thinking about wise and foolish might experience a revolution. 

Worship service times: Saturday: 6:00 pm, Sunday: 9:00 am & 10:30 am.

Angry With God

 

“God, I have a right to be ticked! I have a right to some answers! You took away everything. My kids, my health, everything I loved. Why? What’s the point? What did I do to deserve this? I’ve had enough. Yes God, I’m angry with you!” 

If you had been a personal friend of a man named Job who lived a few years ago and said these very things, you might have been tempted to agree with him. What happened to this man did seem to justify his angry attitude towards God. You can read the account of his rant in the Bible. It’s a long one, but the story has an interesting ending. God finally gives Job the interview he requested, but it is more of a God monologue. Yet, by the end, Job’s attitude has changed dramatically. No more demands. No more taunts. No more anger. What happened? Job got a close up, real life experience with God. Immediately, arrogance turned to humility, questions became irrelevant. It was enough just to know God. 

Some years later there was another man named Jonah. He had similar experiences with God, but for some reason, his reaction was very different from Job’s. He stayed angry with God. When you read his story it’s hard to understand why he continued with that kind of thinking. But when we look at our own lives, all too often we also find slices of anger with God. We might shrug it off and say, “I’m just disappointed God didn’t work things out for me differently. That’s all. I’m not really mad at him.” But it’s there, a certain resentment, a sense of bitterness, a feeling of being shortchanged by the One we say loves us so much. 

Usually, we study the lives of people in the Bible who got things right with God. In Jonah’s case, he didn’t. But we may well find we have more to learn from God’s working in this wayward man’s life than we care to admit. 

If you have some hidden anger toward God tucked away in the corner of your heart, join us for one of our worship services. Anger doesn’t have to be forever, especially when it meets grace. 

Worship service times: Saturday: 6:00 pm, Sunday: 9:00 am & 10:30 am.