January 2010 Archives

This month we explore the biblical virtue of discipline - doing what you need to do now so you can grow stronger. Jesus’ own life displays the value of discipline. He didn’t just arrive on the scene one day fully prepared for his ministry. Like all of us, he had to grow in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52). When we read about the 12-year old Jesus in the Temple, we discover that Jesus was already well on his way to living a life of discipline - doing what you need to do now so you can grow stronger. It’s never too early (or too late) to build a firm, biblical foundation for life and the work that God has for us.

This week’s message on discipline focuses on the importance of reading God’s Word. If you want to know God better, read his book. If you want to know God’s plans for your life, read his book.

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Here’s part 3 in our series Making Room for Life (based on Andy Stanley’s Take if to the Limit). In this message, we begin focusing on how God calls us to live with margin in our finances. Everyone lives on a certain percentage of their income, even if they do not know what the percentage is. The closer we get to living on 100%, the less financial margin and the more stress we have.

God wants us to live with more margin not only make life more livable but because he blesses us for a greater purpose than our own comfort; he wants us to use a portion of what we have to continue his work and bless others. In God’s seemingly upside-down world of values, we discover that financial margin for ourselves is only possible once we start to give away our money because it is only the act of giving that breaks the hold of money on our hearts.

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In part 2 of Making Room for Life, we begin to look at how God would lead us to a life of margin in our schedules. We all have limited time but we often fail to live as if that were true. We add, add, add to our schedules without realizing that every yes is a no to something else. Something has to give and it’s usually the most important things that give way to the merely urgent. God’s solution to the tyranny of the urgent is to give our time to him and he will show us daily how to make room for the most important things in life.

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We are beginning a new six-week series called Making Room for Life, based on a series by Andy Stanley from Northpoint Community Church. Below you’ll find the first message titled To the Limit. While TV programs that show people taking it to the limit can be quite entertaining, there is nothing entertaining about watching a friend push their own lives to the edge. God calls us to lives with enough margin for thriving relationship with him and with one another.

This entry is a re-release of last weeks message (corrected for minor errors).

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We welcome Melissa LaFontaine as our new part-time administrator. She will be responsible for providing clerical and administrative support to our staff. We wish her luck in this endeavor. Godspeed!