Uncategorized

Just Ask – or Don’t!

by
  • “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” —Romans 8:26-27

With modern technology, we can ask a device a question and get an answer in mere seconds. Want to know what the weather will be like before you leave for work? Technology has the answer. Want to know what time your favorite team is playing, how to get somewhere, or listen to a joke? That device has the answer for each of your questions and can even give you step-by-step directions when needed! Each question is answered with great ease and precision—as long as you know the questions you need to ask. 

Today, all over the world, Christians face many unforeseen circumstances. What happens when we’re not quite sure what to ask? What happens when life hits us with things that we can’t explain? What happens when we don’t know what to do? What happens when our world is so shaken that we can’t even process our predicament? 

For those of us in Christ, there is great comfort! The Spirit is here to help us. When we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit takes over for us.

God has given every Christian the privilege of simply existing in His presence. When we are overwhelmed, we need not worry about what to say or do. God allows us to forget about the questions entirely because His Spirit intercedes for us! There are times when the only thing needed to have a vibrant prayer life is to exist in the presence of God. 

I don’t know the strength of your prayer life. You may use wonderful words or the simplest of phrases as you call out to Him. You may wish you had more to say in your alone time with God. Please take heart and let these words in Romans speak to you: “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (8:27).

Your prayer life isn’t dependent on your words—it is dependent on spending time with God. He wants to be with you, and He knows what you need even before you know what to say.

Prayer for the week: Father, allow me to exist in this moment in Your presence. Teach me how to rest in communion with Your Spirit. I don’t know what today holds, but I trust my life to you! Amen. (Now, spend some silent time in the Lord’s presence.)

Wendell Brown is district superintendent of the North Central Ohio District Church of the Nazarene. He is also the founder of Tragedy Into Triumph, a nationwide simulcast reaching hundreds of thousands of people over the last 12 years for the gospel of Christ. He is passionate about discipleship and finding new ways to tell the story of God’s love!

Written for Coffee Break. 

Adversity

by

If you are old enough to be reading this you have already faced adversity in your life.  Adversity is part of the human condition.  No one lives on this earth in perfect bliss.  So why does everyone make such a fuss when things aren’t right? 

We all, every single one of us, wants our own way and most of us don’t like change.  Will you be honest and agree with that?  What we do when we don’t get our way tells others who we are and who we follow. 

Learning to trust God when things aren’t right is a large part of believing in Him and being a Christ follower.  It’s easy to say I believe in Jesus when life is easy and we are having things our own way.  It involves growing in faith, growing in trust in our relationship with Him, to say this when a new virus is discovered, when the economy takes a downturn, or when it gets a bit more personal.  Our faith is tested when our child becomes seriously ill, when we are forced to consider changing jobs or our living arrangements are altered. 

Pastor Ann will be talking to us about a remarkable man and how we can have faith like his tomorrow morning, Sunday March 15, 2020.  We will be live-streaming her message on Facebook at 11:30 a.m.  Please join us!

COVID-19 = Local Restriction of Events

by

Good evening!

We’d like to let all y’all know that events at Cove Nazarene have been cancelled pursuant to the

Declaration of Local Disaster published by County Judge Roger Miller at1:10 pm on March 13, 2020.

The ladies St. Patrick’s Day celebration scheduled for Saturday afternoon (tomorrow) has been cancelled as have ALL regular church services for Sunday, March 15th, 2020.

Please join us for Sunday worship on our Facebook page as we live-stream Pastor Ann’s message. 

Body Parts

by

What are your gifts and talents?  In the Nazarene Church we believe that God has given every person on earth unique gifts and talents to be used for His Glory.  Why would He do that? Jesus explained that we are His body on earth.  Just as the human body has many parts that do many things, God created humanity with talents and abilities to do many different things. 

Take for example, our eyes which are designed only to see.  They can’t taste or smell or hear.  Our eyes serve us by allowing us to view the world around us.  Each of our senses performs a service to the rest of the body by doing what it was designed to do.  We don’t think about how our bodies work when everything is doing its job.  We take for granted that our feet will carry us, our hands will hold things and that our mouth will taste that wonderful burger that our eyes see on the plate in front of us. 

Our gifts and talents lie beneath the surface. They aren’t as obvious as our hands and feet.  Many of our talents appear as we grow and mature, becoming apparent in school or other activities.  Some are only released as we become better acquainted with God and His purpose.

Michelangelo was blessed with an artistic talent that required many parts of his body; his eyes to take in information about the human body, his mind to process that information and break it down into the smallest details, his hands to carve and paint, his back to lift, his feet to take him to the marble quarry or onto the scaffolding.  Because all of these diverse parts worked together for him, we have been able to enjoy his sculptures and paintings for hundreds of years. 

Just as Michelangelo created extraordinary works of art that have served as reminders of God and His creation, each of us has a unique place in God’s plan to serve in the body of Jesus.  As we grow in our relationship with Jesus, our own extraordinary gifts come forth for us to share with the world.  Are you curious to learn more about the gifts and talents that God has poured into you?  Would you like to use them as part of Jesus’ body?  We would encourage you to join us Sunday morning to hear Pastor Ann bring as she brings us a message of how God can help each of us grow in our gifts and talents. 

SERVANT?

by

As young people, others frequently ask us what we want to be when we grow up.  When we reach adulthood, we are asked what our one year plan or five year plan is.  Let’s be honest.  Most of us don’t know.  We have a general idea of what we don’t want to be.  We don’t want to be poor.  We don’t want to be an addict or alcoholic.  We don’t want to be homeless.  We don’t want to be a slave or a servant.

A servant?  Where is the glory or glamour in that?  There is nothing prestigious about being a servant.  It’s not even on the ladder of success, is it?  In our culture the word servant brings to mind positions like housekeeper, butler, doorman, parking valet or chauffer.  But are these really the servants of our culture? 

Our entire economy is built on the service industry.  Think about that for a moment.  We serve others in many of the jobs in this country.  That qualifies us as servants.  If you work in a restaurant, retail, or entertainment venue you are probably serving others.  Attorneys, doctors, law enforcement and other first responders are all serving others.  What about government employees, financial gurus, bankers? Yep.  Servants. IT?  Servant.  Parents and teachers?  Servants.  President of the U.S.? He serves the whole country.  

Are you beginning to get the picture?  Most of us are servants.  Most of us serve others without giving it a second thought.  And yet, if we are told that we should be servants we become defensive and disagreeable.

Jesus called us to be servants.  He washed his disciples’ feet to make his point.  If the Lord would do that for his students, perhaps we should give this whole servant idea another look. 

If you work in the service field (all those careers listed above) perform your job joyfully.  Would it be terrible to help your neighbor carry in her groceries?  How demeaning would it be to invite your co-worker to share a meal?  Are you able to hold a door for someone?  Sometimes serving takes no greater effort than greeting a stranger with a smile.  Perhaps being a servant is one of the best things we could be. 

We are having a worship service on Sunday morning at 10:55 a.m.  Pastor Ann will be exploring this topic further and helping us understand what Jesus has in mind for us.  Please join us in the sanctuary or on Facebook live at 11:30.