It's Okay Not To Be Okay

Read this book if you are...
 Still feeling the pain from a messy divorce
Ruined your marriage after having a fling you knew was wrong
 Enslaved to alcohol, drugs, pornography, (fill in the blank)
Rejected for not having the right look, the right job, the right stuff
 Embarrassed by your inability to stop buying things when you already have three or four of those things
 Feeling there is something wrong with you because you suffer from anxiety and depression

Sheila Walsh knows what it's like to be flawed or feel like a failure.  But the title of her new book dispenses hope.  She continually points to Jesus as the One who loves us in spite of our brokenness. God's grace permeates every page. If you feel like no one gets you, you've got a friend in Sheila Walsh.  Do yourself a favor and get her new book, "It's Okay Not To Be Okay."

A soggy invitation

To come and join us this weekend for worship.  Saturday at 5 pm or Sunday at 8, 9:30 or 11 am.

A little rain won't hurt you.  So, come!

It's a Fun Friday with Matt Maher!

The joy of being let off the hook

Charlie Brown comes running up to Linus, shouting hysterically, "I FOUND IT! I FOUND MY LIBRARY BOOK! I LOOKED IN THE REFRIGERATOR AND THERE IT WAS! I FOUND IT!"

Linus replies, "That's great, Charlie Brown."

"I FOUND IT," cries a delirious Charlie Brown. I FOUND IT! HA HA HA HA HA HA, I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT! HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE, I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT!

As Linus walks on he observes, "In all the world there is nothing more inspiring than the sight of someone who has just been taken off the hook!"

This humorous cartoon left me wondering, "When was the last time I celebrated being left off the hook?"

My sins separated me from God.  But that separation didn't last forever.  Jesus came into this world to fulfill His Father's mission.  The perfect Jesus took the sins from the imperfect me and paid for them with His sacrificial death.  His glorious resurrection makes me certain that the Father accepted Jesus' payment. Now, through the gift of faith, I receive God's Word of forgiveness and the hope of eternal life.

So go crazy today! Through faith in Jesus you've been taken off the hook! That's reason enough to celebrate, right?

Just watch how loudly you celebrate.  You don't want to scare your spouse, kids, cat or dog.  You don't want them to think you're nuts!

Have a joy-filled day in Jesus!

God knows what he is doing

When God wants to drill a man and thrill a man and skill a man
 When God wants to mold a man, to play the noblest part
When He yearns with all His heart to create so great and bold a man
 That all the world should be amazed
Watch His methods, watch His ways
 How He ruthlessly perfects what He royally elects
How He hammers him and hurts him
 And with mighty blows converts him into shapes and forms of clay
Which only God can understand
 While man's tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands
Yet God bends but never breaks when man's good He undertakes
 How He uses whom He chooses
And with mighty power infuses Him
 With every act induced him to try His splendor out
God knows what He's about

Anon. 

The Mercy Seat

Scripture teaches us that God has set up two seats. One is the judgment seat for those who are proud and don't acknowledge or want to confess their sins. The other is the mercy seat for the poor, timid consciences who feel their sins and confess them, who despair of His judgment and who hope to find 
God's kindness.

In Romans 3:25, Paul says this mercy seat is Christ. God has given this seat to us as a place where we can find refuge because we cannot withstand God's judgment on our own. I want to find my refuge there too, for I have done and am still doing too little. I keep singing against God's law even after my justification and sanctification. My heart and conscience, no matter how pure they might appear to others, will count for nothing there. But they will be covered with a vaulted ceiling called mercy and forgiveness of sins.  It will serve as a strong protection and defense for me.  My heart and conscience will crawl under it and be safe. 

...Therefore, God Himself has established this mercy seat. He is the One who directs us away from the judgment seat and towards the mercy seat.

"Faith Alone," Martin Luther, October 9

Is it worth it to wait?

The world may say waiting is a waste, but God uses waiting to grow hope.

Michael W. Newman, "Hope When Your Heart Breaks," page 135