Lots happening. Don’t know where to begin. God is the best place to start. He is fantastic. He create us, all of us and everything that exists. See Psalm 24.
GOD:
Not only did He create us, He loves us dearly. Sometimes we don’t think He loves us and sometimes we think He has abandoned us. But, its not so. If God seems far away and uncaring to me, it is my problem. I am the one who has turned away. He can cause me to feel good and He can cause me to feel lousy. The feelings are a result of His actions, my action and my expectations. If I am not trusting in Him, then my actions and my expectations are likely to be outside of His will. When He created us, it was for His purposes and He has a great plan for our lives now and in eternity. God refuses to make us follow in His will using His power. He made us with “Free Will” and He wants us to trust, obey and follow using the “Free Will” He gifted to us. I’m learning about that. And, I am obviously, a slow learner. Trusting is hard for me. My own self will distracts and derails my best efforts. And, when it is governed by my efforts, then I have failed to trust. Sounds like circular logic. But, I don’t think it is.
DCC:
This crazy discussion leads me to the situation at my church. Right now I am very disheartened. My heart is crying out and I don’t like the feelings. Remember what I said about feelings. Feeling bad is a result of the interactions of God will, my actions and my expectations. I know God loves me and wants the best for me. So, the problem lies with my actions and/or my expectations.
There are fellow christians in the brotherhood of DCC who are unhappy with the sermons and leadership of Brian Myers. I have heard from many of them and I have heard second hand about many of them. The feelings are extensive enough to be concerning. I am concerned.
I like Brian’s sermons and I like Brian. I don’t have and opinion about His leadership. It is okay with me. Brian’s sermons and my relationship with him have prompted me to dig deeper into my “salvation story”. It is, I believe and ongoing story. The past three years I believe I have grown in my walk and grown closer to God. I have like the DCC experience in the past the past three years.
Now I see that there is growing distaste and growing divisiveness. The situation is making me cry. What can be done to get back to the old acceptable situation? What is going on here? Is God sending us a message? Was there something wrong with the old. I am reminded of John’s vision in Revelation about the “lukewarm” church at Laodicea. Were we “lukewarm”? Did we need to change? Do we need to change? Do I need to change? This is concerning me and I don’t know what to do. I hurt. I am crying for the fellowship of DCC. We may not be just “lukewarm” now?
THE YOUTH OF SUMMIT COUNTY:
Scott Price and I are working along with many others to improve the Christian outreach in Summit county. We believe that a local version of Young Life would be a good tool to accomplish part of this objective. The effort seems to be moving along nicely with little resistance and a great deal of positive support.
We have a club number and we many verbal commitments. There are potential adult leaders who seem committed to work. There are youth who seem interested in going to camp. Scott has done a great job of communicating with interested people. It seems now to be and issue priority. We are not really established. But, there are some who want us to be.
We can send youth to camp using the facility and expertise of the Evergreen club. We have secured ten seats on their bus. We have one leader committed to go with the youth. We need one more. Most of these youth are not in a close relationship with an adult leader. This seems to make it difficult to secure a commitment from the kids that they are actually going to camp. Also, the $700 fee is a problem for many of them at this rather late date. The camp week is June 11-19. Therefore, many may need help with the fee. We might need $5000 or $6000. Any one want to help?
The next meeting of our informal group is May 17th at the Prices beginning at 6p.m.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
April 24th storm.
http://tinyurl.com/2baoham check out this link. This is the third day of continuing snow. It is the biggest storm of the season.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
1 CORINTHIANS 6
UPDATE FOR THE JEREMIAH/CORINTHIAN STUDY.
I have been on a trip to Arizona the past week and did not attend the weekly study last Thursday (4/01/2010). Also, I did not do the Blog for the previous week. Here are the schedules for the next several weeks.
Jeremiah 13-14 4/1/2010
1 Corinthians 7 4/8/2010 (This week)
Jeremiah 15 4/15/2010
1 Corinthians 8 4/22/2010
Two weeks ago, Paul talked about lawsuits within the body and was explaining how the Body belongs to the Lord. Yes, why would two believers ever consider or desire to have a dispute settled by a non-believer? As believers, do we really have a good relationship with the rest of the body in the community where we live? Furthermore, do we have a good relationship with our God? What is Paul saying about the focus of “our lives”? First, are “our lives” really our lives? It is because of a powerful creator that we exist. He, God gives us life. Then He has come to us in many revelations and has made a covenant (an agreement) with us. Do you know what He wants? He says it many times in His word. He wants us to understand that He is our God and we are His people. Actually, He is our God. He made us and we did not make ourselves. He wants us to act like He is our God. But, through out history and even today, we continue to act like we want a different god. We do not act like we are His people. In Jeremiah and 1 Corinthians we hear how sad God is that we try to create false gods. We continue to act like we do not want Him to be our God. We do things like letting unbelievers settle disputes between us and one of our brothers or sisters.
Paul give quite a dissertation about what things are lawful. He is questioning the wisdom of wanting to be lawful and not recognizing The One who created us. Our bodies belong to Christ. We are all members of the Body of Christ. Our bodies, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We and our bodies have been bought with a price. We have been brought from death to life by Christ. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and to put to death our sinful nature so that our lives can be based on the Holy Spirit.
Last week in Jeremiah 13-14, we read about many examples of why it is not good to be separated from our God. If we drift away from Him, we will perish. The created world is setup to operate by God’s rules. Not following the teachings of our God will lead to destruction. When we do not stay in close relationship we will automatically head for the sword, famine, pestilence or captivity. One of those dreadful fates will get us. It is written in the creation. Turn away from God and you die by one of these terrible methods. One could easily conclude that the citizens of the United States are currently in a state of captivity. We are letting ourselves be held captive by evil forces because we have turned away from our creator. Our God laments over our current state. He longs for our return. Our hope lies not in a new government. Our hope is defined by God. Turn to Him, hunger and thirst after God and he will take you home according to His will. God did not create the universe without purpose. And, He did not create you without reason. We can be assured, He has great and glorious purposes for each of us. Hope in the Lord and follow Him. Let me know what you think of the writings in Jeremiah and Corinthians.
I have been on a trip to Arizona the past week and did not attend the weekly study last Thursday (4/01/2010). Also, I did not do the Blog for the previous week. Here are the schedules for the next several weeks.
Jeremiah 13-14 4/1/2010
1 Corinthians 7 4/8/2010 (This week)
Jeremiah 15 4/15/2010
1 Corinthians 8 4/22/2010
Two weeks ago, Paul talked about lawsuits within the body and was explaining how the Body belongs to the Lord. Yes, why would two believers ever consider or desire to have a dispute settled by a non-believer? As believers, do we really have a good relationship with the rest of the body in the community where we live? Furthermore, do we have a good relationship with our God? What is Paul saying about the focus of “our lives”? First, are “our lives” really our lives? It is because of a powerful creator that we exist. He, God gives us life. Then He has come to us in many revelations and has made a covenant (an agreement) with us. Do you know what He wants? He says it many times in His word. He wants us to understand that He is our God and we are His people. Actually, He is our God. He made us and we did not make ourselves. He wants us to act like He is our God. But, through out history and even today, we continue to act like we want a different god. We do not act like we are His people. In Jeremiah and 1 Corinthians we hear how sad God is that we try to create false gods. We continue to act like we do not want Him to be our God. We do things like letting unbelievers settle disputes between us and one of our brothers or sisters.
Paul give quite a dissertation about what things are lawful. He is questioning the wisdom of wanting to be lawful and not recognizing The One who created us. Our bodies belong to Christ. We are all members of the Body of Christ. Our bodies, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We and our bodies have been bought with a price. We have been brought from death to life by Christ. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and to put to death our sinful nature so that our lives can be based on the Holy Spirit.
Last week in Jeremiah 13-14, we read about many examples of why it is not good to be separated from our God. If we drift away from Him, we will perish. The created world is setup to operate by God’s rules. Not following the teachings of our God will lead to destruction. When we do not stay in close relationship we will automatically head for the sword, famine, pestilence or captivity. One of those dreadful fates will get us. It is written in the creation. Turn away from God and you die by one of these terrible methods. One could easily conclude that the citizens of the United States are currently in a state of captivity. We are letting ourselves be held captive by evil forces because we have turned away from our creator. Our God laments over our current state. He longs for our return. Our hope lies not in a new government. Our hope is defined by God. Turn to Him, hunger and thirst after God and he will take you home according to His will. God did not create the universe without purpose. And, He did not create you without reason. We can be assured, He has great and glorious purposes for each of us. Hope in the Lord and follow Him. Let me know what you think of the writings in Jeremiah and Corinthians.
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