Why Life Groups, pt. 6

It encourages the use of spiritual gifts
It is amazing to me to see the wealth of gifts that God has given to the church. All of us have been given spiritual gifts to be used in building up the faith of others (1 Cor. 12:4-7) but we don’t all exercise them as we should. Some of the reticence is due to the notion that others are better equipped than we are and so we pull back and watch. We become spectators instead of participants. Life Groups make it harder to stay on the “sidelines” because there are no professionals to hand the responsibilities to. Spiritual gifts blossom in this environment, and when spiritual gifts blossom so do the lives of those participating (Eph. 4:16).

"Base Camp" Capital Drive Total

Praise God!

We raised over $300,000 for the down payment and $531,000 so far in pledges (3 year commitment)

David - After God's Heart

This Sunday I get to start a new series called "After God's Heart" which will drop us down into the life of King David through 1 and 2 Samuel. Not that I'm going to preach through both books but only certain episodes in his life. I love it. These are my favorite Old Testament books - the ones that I push on my kids when they are looking for a good place to read in the Bible.

Why is David so appealing to read about? I think it is because his faith runs through the same cycles as ours. There is a humanness to his relationship with God so that we read about his bravery in 1 Sam. 17 and then see his fear in 1 Sam. 21. We read his triumphant Psalms and then we read the despairing ones where God seemed far away to him. We know of his high moments like bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6) and of the lowest - his sinful relationship with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11-12).

There is encouragement here. If David is said to be a "man after God's own heart" with his storied past, there is hope for us.

Hard to Believe it!

It's still hard to believe that we're in a building of our own. I sat studying in my new office today with boxes of books all around, waiting for shelves to arrive, sniffing new paint (whew!), so I decide to snoop in the kitchen...we have a kitchen! There on the island rested the remains of our moving party food last Saturday so I snitch some banana bread...ahh...this is great. It is just starting to hit me. Several times today I looked out on our 10 acre spread and walked around inside the building (it was too cold and windy to go outside) and pondered God's goodness.

Bless this place for Your use, Lord.