Word from the Pastor...

Worship

2006-12-04T08:09:00.000-08:00

We as human beings, have the God given right to choose who or what we desire to worship. Furthermore, as Americans we are given the liberty to exercise worship whenever and wherever we choose.

However the day we make a choice as to who or what we worship, the choice of how we worship is no longer our own. Our worship is governed by the directives given by the one we have chosen to worship.

Christian worship is more than what occurs as we respond to music during a powerful church service. True worship, is always about who He is, not what we feel. Sometimes God graces us with feelings of exuberant gratitude, but if we wait until these moments occur to worship, we probably will have long periods of time between worship experiences.

Instead of focusing on how we feel at the moment to be what propells us to worship, lets allow who He is to us, to be the spark that ignites our worship.

When we learn to worship because of who He is to us, it will make all other disciplines of Christianity transform from mechanical works we grudgingly do to please a deity we fear, into a fruit and labor of love that comes naturally to please a Father we love.

Church attendance will come easy.
Loving your neighbor as your self will be automatic.
The ability to give not grudgingly or of neccessity will be second nature.
Living a Godly life will be your hearts desire.

We have chosen to Worship the one God who became a man, and died that we may live, Let's worship him appropriately.

Being spiritual

2006-11-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

In these last days in which we live even more than ever before, we are being called to shed our religious thinking. This "religious" thought pattern has evolved to the point that in many religious traditions it has become just a shadow of Christs nature, and be not deceived, there is a difference between His shadow and His person.
Just because we have learned to lift our hands in church, or pray out loud, or have talents such as singing, playing music or even preaching and teaching, by its self is not sign of spirituality.
The word "spirituality" comes from the Hebrew Word ruach which means many things. A few of these are, "spirit", "wind", "fire", and "breath".
A secular defininition of spirituality is "that which puts into motion a persons life of faith".
Christian spirituality is much more circumspect than this broad definition, it brings in the understanding,
1: a set of beliefs as found in the Bible. (not traditions or our culture)
2: a set of values based on, hope, promise of redemption, love of others, and denial of self.
3: a way of life.
With this in mind a definition of Christian spirituality can be defined like this,
"The quest for a life that involves taking the beliefs and values of Christianity and weaving them into the fabric of our lives so that that the living Christ provides the "breath" "spirit" and "fire" for our lives."
If you have lost the passion for life, remember God desires to breath His spirit into your soul. From His life giving Spirit you learn, Spirituality is not about what you do, but rather who you are, and when you know who your are, the fruit of Christ will come alive and manifest its self in your life, and Spirituality will be the result.

Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man, is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly

Life

2006-06-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

Praise the Lord

It is about 11:00 P.M. and I am sitting in my backyard reflecting on todays events and trying to catch up on my bread reading. It is at times like this the Lord can speak to me and clarify many of the lessons of life that He wants us to understand. Many of you know that Jerry has been scheduled to have a feeding tube inserted in His stomach tomorow and though this may be a temporary setback it is still emotionally challenging to face.

At times like this it forces us to not only examine our faith, but more specifically to examine the focus of our faith (when I say to examine the focus of our faith, I do not mean the focus as to who our faith is in, that is Jesus, but rather to examine the trust we have in the plan that Jesus has for our situation).

As I listened to my dear sister in the Lord, Anita Stanfill, tearfully inform me of the feeding tube earlier today, I grasped for words of comfort to say and I probably did not find many to share, but sometimes when we can say nothing, God can then speak to us.
My thoughts came to the subject of the blessings and favour of God and in particular the subject of healing as it is presented to us by differing religious traditions.

1: Many people believe that any and all illness or injuries will be healed if only we have the faith
to believe it. An even further view of this idea retains the idea that if you are not healed, the
fault is with your lack of faith.
2: Others believe if you are not healed that it was just Gods will. His will is above our ways and
though He can heal, He decided allow this to occur and to not heal for a greater good.

I must say that the faith that Sis. Anita is manifesting through this ordeal is truly strong and though there are no doubt times of confusion and emotion, her faith is as strong as any person could exemplify given the circumstances she is facing with Jerry. And Jerry also is a man of faith and though his circumstance would confuse any of us if we were in his situation, I believe his faith has risen to the occasion. We must then ask, if our faith is strong, and God is able, why then do we face the setbacks instead of complete healings? In this confusion, we can find ourselves vascilating back and forth from either one of the above mentioned viewpoints on Gods position as He responds toward our physical healing needs.

Let me offer a 3rd opinion as to what should be the focus of our faith as to how God responds to our physical needs when it comes to situations such as healing. Could it be that God is trying to tell us, please don't condemn yourself by thinking that your faith is not big enough to move this mountain, (in fact let us remember that the faith we have is a gift from God) nor please don't think of me as a God who would will something as tragic as a terrible illness or accident on one of my children. Remember God does not need something bad to occur to make something good.

My position is that when God told mankind to dress and keep the earth He was well aware of the fact that many things both good and bad would occur just by virtue of the fact that these corruptible bodies are fragile and vulnerable. When it comes to these types of events that life throws our way I like to say that the Lord does not orchestrate them so we cannot put the blame on Him, nor does He condemn us for our inadequate faith to move the mountain. An accurate position is that as said above "God does not orchestrate, but He does promise to
co-habitate with us during these delemnas and from this cohabitation can come healing but if we will allow Him, He will always co-habitate and give us peace that passes understanding and a revelation of God that can impower us to rise above any mountain that may be in our way. Always remember our hope is not on this earth but as Paul says "there is therefore laid up for me a crown of righteousness" and as God dwells in all of the issues of life we face, and in many instances intervenes on our behalf, we can be certain that if we allow Him, no circumstance can hold us down or keep us bound to what life throws our way.
Pastor Randy Hargate -
Crossroads Christian Fellowship
As my daughter read this before publishing the post, she asked that I would define the menaing of cohabitate as used in the context of this article.
Cohabitate = God dwelling side by side with us during the circumstances of life, offering peace, comfort, love, and spiritual understanding to empower us to rise above any situation that could come our way.

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2006-06-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

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