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8/25/2024 0 Comments Pastor’s PenBeloved, we just returned back from our annual Youth retreat. Once again, we ventured to the HEB Camp and had a great time of relaxation, restoration and rejuvenation in the Lord. Our theme for this year’s retreat was Psalm 37:5, “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.”
This morning we will look over the study that I presented to the Youth and Counselors at the retreat. We will study how not to trust in the Lord and how to trust in the Lord. Beloved, God wants us to trust Him. Unfortunately we often go through life trusting everything and everyone else except the Lord. Hopefully as we look at a couple of characters from Scripture we will learn that we can trust God at His Word. As Peter said in John 6:66–69, “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Indeed, Jesus has the words of eternal life! Blessings- Pastor Joe
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8/18/2024 0 Comments Pastor’s PenBeloved, many of us are at the HEB Foundation Youth Camp and we will be returning this afternoon. Please pray for a safe return for us all. Pastor Joel will be teaching in my place with a study from John 10 entitled, “Lead On Good Shepherd."
As the summer winds down please note that we will returning to Wednesday Evening Services on September 11. Please also consider signing up for our Men’s Retreat in September and our upcoming Men’s Study as well. We look forward to seeing you soon. I pray that you have enjoyed the Summer Home Fellowships and that you will soon be completing your studies! Blessings- Pastor Joe 8/11/2024 0 Comments Pastor’s PenBeloved, years ago a food processing plant decided to manufacture a cake mix that all you had to do was add water to the mix, bake it and you have a cake. Unfortunately, it never sold. Homemakers did not believe that it was real. It can’t be that easy, can it?
So, the food processing giant was stuck with thousands of unsold instant cake mixes. Fortunately, one of their product managers said, “Why don’t we make a cake mix where the consumer has to add something to it to make it work, like an egg or something? And that they did. They made a cake mix that required you to add an egg to make it work. They marketed the product, and the cake mixes were flying off the shelves. Why? Because people wanted to add some work to the mix. That is what happens when we try to add to the Work of Christ. We call it legalism. The Gnostics were good at this. Religion is good at this. Don’t fall for it. It doesn’t help. Blessings- Pastor Joe 8/4/2024 0 Comments Pastor’s PenBeloved, the believers in the church at Colosse were facing a great danger. False teachers had been telling them that Jesus was not enough. False teachers came into the church and said, “We know you’re Christians, but that’s not enough. There are things that you need to add to your Christianity. Things that will make you more spiritual than just knowing and loving and serving Jesus Christ.” The same kind of dangers face us as Christians today: saying that Christ is not sufficient or that Christ is not enough.
The false teachers in Paul’s day, as the false teachers of our own day, were teaching Christ plus legalism, Christ plus mysticism and Christ plus asceticism. But Paul has made it clear that we, as Christians, are complete in Christ. The moment you were born again, you were placed in Christ, and Christ is the fullness of God. You draw from that fullness, and you have that fullness. It is because Jesus went to the Cross and rose again that we possess eternal life. Yes, the results of the Cross are life, change and growth. Is Jesus enough? Absolutely! Blessings- Pastor Joe |
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