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 “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” —2 Thessalonians 3:5 (ESV)

I remember vividly the day I was born again. The Nazarene church our family used to attend was having its annual Fall Revival. I do not remember the name of the evangelist or the song selection or the text of the sermon. What stands out about that night is the strong awareness the Holy Spirit brought about my desperate need of a Savior. That night, as I knelt at an altar in the front of the sanctuary and repented of my sin, Jesus changed the trajectory of my life.

Have you ever thought about how your relationship with Christ has evolved over the years?

As a pastor, it has become obvious to me that some people are more mature in Christ than others. Often, the difference has little to do with the amount of time they have been a Christian. How do we grow in Christ?

We understand that anything that takes place in our lives is a work of God. He is the author and finisher of our faith. We are born in the Spirit, baptized in the Spirit, and grow as we walk in the Spirit. However, we recognize that there is also a call from God for our participation in the work He desires to do in us. We recognize that God works when we trust and obey Him. He wants us to seek after Him and do the work that exhibits a lively faith!

His promise in Jeremiah is that we will find Him when we seek Him with all our heart.

Regular participation in church worship, Bible reading, prayer, baptism, Holy Communion, fellowship with other believers, and acts of service to the church and community are all activities that help us seek God. I have resolved to spend my life intentionally placing myself in the position to be directed by the Lord. There is great reward in seeking Jesus!

This seeking does not contradict God’s work, but complements it. Our faith is living, not philosophical. As we seek, we find. There are moments where God acts to do full, complete, and finished works in our lives. That night many years ago, around an altar, I was adopted into the family of God. It was not partial, it was a full welcome into being an heir with Jesus Christ.

I remember another night, years later, when I knelt at an altar and fully surrendered my will to the will of God. I entirely consecrated my life to Him and did not hold anything back. The Holy Spirit sanctified me through and through! These are two moments that I have sought to live out ever since. The process of maturing is seeking to fully live out the ramifications of what God has done in my life. Maybe this week, as we place ourselves in places of obedience and trust, God will direct our hearts.

Jared Henry is lead pastor of Mackey Church of the Nazarene in Mackey, Indiana, USA.

Written for Coffee Break. 

Do you believe in giants?  They exist you know.  They are all around us and we interact with them every day.  What?  You don’t think so?  You haven’t seen any 12 foot men and women walking around your neighborhood.  You haven’t even seen any 6 foot toddlers!  Okay. Okay.  Give me a moment and I will try to explain.

The giants I’m speaking of live inside each of us.  They have taken up residence and made themselves quite comfortable in our lives.  They inhabit our heads and our hearts.  They whisper to us as they go about shuffling from one spot to the next.  They look for the weak spots in us.  When they find one! Whumpf!  They set that big old king-size bed right down and make themselves a home which soon becomes a castle and that soon becomes a stronghold. 

Are you still here?  Good.  What I’m talking about is that littlest word… sin.  Rarely do we think of it as a giant. It’s just that one little thing and I didn’t mean to do it and I have no intention of doing it again and oh whoops I just slipped there but I can get right back on track and that won’t stop me doggone it happened again I can’t believe I tripped over that thing again.  Have you had this conversation with yourself about ANYTHING?  Yes.  Anything.  Giants come in so many forms I don’t even know where to begin. 

Giants can be pride, gossip, a critical attitude, greed, lust, envy, jealousy.  Giants can be a bad habit and we all seem to have one of those, even if its just picking your nose.  With Covid19 everywhere right now, just think how bad a habit that nose-picking is!!!  Giants can disguise themselves as good things too.  Maybe you are one of those people who help others, and help others, and help others not because you want to but because you can’t say no.  It looks good on the outside, but you are miserable on the inside; frustrated, aggravated, insulted.  So you see, giants really are everywhere. 

Now I am hoping you are thinking about your own giants and what to do with them.  I am really, really hoping you are thinking about how to get rid of them.  I think you may have already realized that they won’t go away on their own.

That is exactly where Pastor Ann comes in.  On Sunday, Pastor Ann will be talking to us about the strongholds those giants have created in our lives and what we ought to do about them.

We will be doing drive-in style service again this week so worship will start promptly at 10:55 a.m.  We will be live-streaming Pastor Ann’s sermon beginning at 11:15 a.m. on Facebook.  If you can’t join us in person or follow along while she’s preaching, we will post her sermon on our YouTube channel as soon as possible after service.

PRAYER MOBILIZATION LINE 22 April 2020

Board of General Superintendents Call to Prayer—Week Four Scripture Reading: Job 19:25–27   Maybe you saw it. The meme said, “I didn’t plan on giving up this much for Lent.” We have laughed, and we have cried during the past few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consistently across the globe, people in every country have isolated themselves from others. Life has been simplified to new levels in so many ways. Onsite work is almost non-existent. Families are together for countless hours in their homes. For the first time in decades, parents and children are eating three meals a day around their kitchen tables. What we have considered “essential daily activities” for so long have been taken away.   When all is stripped away, what is left? JESUS REMAINS! Job lost everything that the world said was important, but he was able to say, “I know that my redeemer lives!” We have passed through Easter declaring in the presence of our family and our God, “Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!” In these simplified moments, let us declare with Job, “We know that our redeemer lives!” Let’s recommit our lives to focus on what matters most—praising Jesus and sharing Him with our world!   Please pray for: People experiencing grief over the losses they are experiencing in this crisis. The millions of singles, young and old, who struggle with loneliness and despair during shelter-in-place orders. The thousands of Sunday schools and small group leaders who are ministering to men, women, and children every week while exploring new and varied ways to connect with their classes. Sunday School & Discipleship Ministries International (SDMI) district leaders and local SDMI presidents who are prayerfully and creatively guiding ministry initiatives through these challenging times. The ongoing discipleship of our children and youth across our six regions. For children’s ministry leaders and youth leaders as they navigate these new challenges in ministry. Parents as they balance the stresses of life, working at home, parenting and discipling their children, and homeschooling. Christians to share the love of Christ through thoughtful and generous acts of kindness to their family members, friends, and neighbors. Families whose loved ones are isolated in a senior facility, a nursing home, a rehabilitation center, or a hospital, and cannot physically be in contact with one another. Those struggling with addictions and the challenges this creates while in isolation.

In Hebrews 12:26 we are told that God has said, ” YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT THE HEAVEN.”

There is all kinds of shaking going on around us all the time. There have been many earthquakes since then.  Kingdoms have fallen, as have stars from heaven.  People have their lives shaken frequently because of illness, job changes, relationship disruptions and so on and on.  Covid19 is just the latest disturbance.

So did God mean all of that?  Or was He talking about something entirely different?  I think He was doing both.  He knows that little things that go wrong can shake us up.  He knows that little things can grow into bigger things that really shake us up.  He knows that we can allow this shaking to completely derail us and send us spinning off into another world.

God also meant that there is only one thing on earth and in heaven that cannot be shaken. Him. His Kingdom is outside of time.  His Word is eternal and unchanging.  His desire is to share His Kingdom and Word with us so that we will never be shaken, no matter what comes.

He said this to prepare us for the ups and downs of life but also to remind us that he will be sending Jesus back to complete His tasks.  We need to be prepared for that and the best way to do that is to lean on God, study His word and build our relationship with Him so that we are part of HIS Kingdom. 

As people in His Kingdom, it won’t matter if our lives are shifted and shaken now.  We know that there is more. 

Pastor Ann is going to talk about what this shaking means and what we can do to get into God’s Kingdom this Sunday April 19, 2020.  Please join us at 10:55 for drive-in style service or at 11:15 on Facebook livestream. 

As we move through this very important time of the year, I want us to be sure that we think clearly, that we don’t just go through this week with our minds in neutral. So for the duration of this week, I intend to write daily to us all as a congregation and challenge us to think. 
It is interesting to see our current situation through the eyes of history. What can we learn from the Exodus that can be applied to our lives today? Although I’m sure that there are many other things that could be brought out, I think one of the most glaring parallels is related to the fact that Pharaoh was unwilling to acknowledge that there was anyone who had the authority to tell him what to do. In fact, if you remember some of the Egyptian history, you will remember that the pharaohs were considered gods by some and/or at least, the access to the gods by all. So when this man named Moses comes in and tells Pharaoh that another God said to let the Hebrews go so that they could travel 3 days out of town and worship, this was considered to be a slap in the face of the Pharaoh himself. How could any God have the audacity to consider Pharaoh so puny that he would have to bow before this God’s desire? And because of that arrogance, Jehovah God had to demonstrate to the Pharaoh that there was no other god that could even come close to Himself. He had already poured out plague after plague to convince the Pharaoh that there was one much more powerful than himself, but Pharaoh would have none of it. It was not until God had to levy the final plague, the death of the firstborn in every household, that Pharaoh was willing to concede that there was someone more powerful than he. And if you remember the story, you remember that it only took a short time for Pharaoh, after the death of his own firstborn son, to be sorry that he had let the Hebrew children go. Then he sent his army to race after them and bring them back. As a result, God had to wipe out the whole army to prove His point. There is no god like Jehovah!
This is a wonderful time to rejoice in our God, the One who provided our freedom from slavery to sin. But, as we get ready to remember Passover tomorrow evening, it is also a wonderful time for us to examine ourselves. Have we allowed the arrogance of the world to rub off onto us even as the coronavirus will rub onto us if we allow ourselves to get too close to it? The world proclaims that they can do whatever they want and that no one can tell them what they can or should do even as Pharaoh proclaimed. If we allow ourselves to be friends with the world who arrogantly defy Jehovah, we must not be amazed when we find ourselves defying Jehovah. 
Jesus prayed that the Father would protect us since we are in the world but not of the world (John 17:16). But He also said, “No man can serve two masters. For you will hate the one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other ” (Matt 6:24 NLT) and, “If you love me, obey my commandments (John 14:15 NLT). 

May God preserve you all and prepare your hearts for Passover!

Pastor Ann