Home

What should you do if you are dating someone who is dragging you down in your walk with God? Should you date someone who isn’t a believer? What if you are in high school and your parents don’t want you to date? What should you do if you married the wrong person by mistake?

What would happen if you put God first in your love life?

This weekend we are beginning a new series that will take us all the way to Easter. Each week, as we ramp up to Resurrection Sunday at the Majestic Valley Arena, our hearts will be injected with a sense of God’s power over death. I am praying that throughout this intense series many people will prepare to meet their Maker.

Acts 26:8 Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?

The opening chapter of the book of Ruth punched me in the face this week. I learned from just about every character in the story. From Naomi I learned that I must not let my feelings dictate my faith. I learned from Orpah that if you quit when it’s hard you will miss out. I learned from Elimelech that running away from God when He is trying to get your attention never solves anything. From Mahlon and Chilion I realized that those are terrible names. And from Ruth I saw that even if just about everyone around you is making mistakes and everything is falling apart, God still has a plan and you can still choose to participate in that grand adventure. No one can stop you from trusting that God is in control.

This weekend I preached a message all about time management. Time is the most valuable commodity in the world. You only have so much of it, and when it’s gone–it’s gone. We discussed how, in spite of it’s value, it is easily wasted (think farmville and the fact that the average american consumes 153 hours of tv per month) This is unacceptable. God wants us to redeem and invest our time wisely. Not that we can’t ever play video games or watch tv; but on our death bed we will definitely regret a life lived on the couch and off mission.

I believe that the mega, counter-cultural paradigm shift that is needed in our day, when it comes to time, is buffer. Margin. White space. Room to breathe. Selah. Sabbath.

Our world is frantic, in a constant hurry, always moving, always churning. And if we don’t choose to make a change and tune in God’s frequencies of peace, stillness and rest–we are not going to experience His best for our life. If we fail to give things room to breathe, whether in our budgets, our schedules or our relationships the only possible result is stress. And this is only going to become more and more important as technology, and progress continue to morph and speed up life, connectivity and the standard of “normal” in our culture.

I am indebted to the writings of Dr. Richard Swenson, whose work on this subject from a Christian perspective are the best I have read (by far!) His books: The Overload Syndrome, In Search of Balance, and Margin are all fantastic and helped me a ton in preparing this message. In the past, these books have opened my eyes to the lack of margin in my own life in different areas and has given Jennie and I many things to think through, repent from and shake up.

As we head into a new year I hope and pray this will inspire you to make the most of whatever time God gives you, for His glory and your fullest joy. After all, “Only one life and it will soon be past…Only what’s done for Christ will last! It won’t be easy, but you must pry some bandwidth from the mouth of some good things if you are going to have enough to give to the best things. There is only so much time to go around.

We began a new series this weekend at fresh life that is aimed at cultivating a sense of deep dissatisfaction in our hearts. Not that we would grumble and complain because our tv is a LCD and not an LED or because we don’t have the newest model of snowboard. That’s just lame.

The discontent that we are seeking to foster is one that springs from a distaste over the progress we have made in our Christian lives compared to our vast and unlimited potential in Christ. It’s realizing how far we have to go, (the finish line is becoming just like Christ) how much we have been given (All things pertaining to life and godliness 2 Peter 1:3) and how little time we have. (Life is a vapor) And then letting that divine dissatisfaction fuel our forward motion.

Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, put it this way, Self satisfaction rings the death-knell of progress. There must be a deep-seated discontent with present attainments, or there will never be a striving after the things which are yet beyond.

Contentment is the enemy of growth.

I hope and pray that you will join us on our journey this winter, even if you live in a warm climate, as together we seek to go further up and further in!