image1

Unfolding a Mystery of God

Uncategorized, Fragile Growth, , , , , Leave a comment

By Karen Polich

How much potential and possibility do we have in our Christian life? It is difficult to fathom how God can live in us and we in Him. The mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27b) Pastor Michael M. Cook’s sermon series, Fragile Growth, explored this mystery related to living out our full potential. Listen to the podcast here.

Colossians 1:24-29 24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

This speaks to the possibilities in every disciple’s life and helps clarify the potential in a “God transformed” life.

Christ is not diminished in us. It is a challenge to understand. His presence, received through salvation will be something that changes us. His presence released, strengthens us. It is not us, but Christ living in us and loving through us.

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14:20

In the Christian life, we have tremendous help through the Holy Spirit. Will we use it? No matter the pressure faced in life, help is at hand. He resides in us. We need to move out of the way and let Him lead.

The power of Christ in our lives communicates something about our potential. We can exchange our strength for His. We often try to get to the point where we can do things on our own, which is impossible. We can’t, but He can. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31

The prospect of Christ in us reveals the hope of glory. Often we swim in failure. Without hope where would we be? We have hope now and hope in the future. There is more waiting for us beyond today and this life. (Romans 8:11, Psalm 17:15)

How great in the Kingdom, can we be in terms of Kingdom building for the cause of Christ? What is our full potential in Christ? As we grow spiritually in fragile space, know that the Holy Spirit is there to strengthen us as we live a life transformed by God.

 

 

 

 

 

img_3438

Giving Matters

Uncategorized, , , Leave a comment

By Trevor Jordan with Karen Polich

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops. Proverbs 3:9

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Trevor Jordan and learn more about his perspective on giving and why it matters. Trevor grew up with parents who stressed the importance of tithing to him from an early age. Read on to learn more from Trevor.

As a kid, I wondered how God uses the money. My parents would put five dollars in my hand and let me place it in the offering. They were building the habit. As a young kid and then a college student, I didn’t have much of anything to give on my own. My parents helped me see that in any situation, we can and should give God what we have to give. It may hurt, but maybe it is supposed to so we are reminded that He comes first.

Now I see God in action with the resources we give. That sense of pride I feel when I see kids climbing on the rock wall or hear stories from a mission trip comes from giving. I get to be a part of something greater than me. God gives me the opportunity to invest in Him and His work. That’s a wonderful thing. As a shareholder, I have a stake in His church.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21

You and I get to be a part of what God is doing through our giving. Every time we walk into the building, attend an event, or work with pastors who don’t have to split their time at another job in order to make ends meet, we are part of that. We are honoring God with our resources. Stewardship is obedience. God has called us to give Him our firstfruits and He blesses us when we are obedient.

Invest in God, in yourself and in the Kingdom.

God doesn’t need our money. His accomplishments are not dependent on us, yet He invites us to be part of His work. When we give to Him, He gives in return. He lets us be part of His amazing Kingdom work. It’s an investment that impacts my life in many ways. Having a heart of obedience that understands it’s all His has helped me grow in my relationship with God.

When we give from an obedient heart, we honor God. It’s an investment worth more than we can imagine.

 

image1

Center Point

Fragile Growth, Uncategorized, , Leave a comment

By Karen Polich

He created you and everything around you.

We all have a center point, the authority we give our allegiance to. Who (or what) is at the center point of your life? Take a look at life and evaluate what is the center piece. Where is your worship? Is God the center? Is it money, time, work, an upcoming wedding, fitness, the next vacation, or children?

What happens when Jesus is the center? Get ready. When Jesus is at the center you know, He won’t leave things the same. He’s going to ask you to love those who hate you. He’ll drive you to give more away. Your time, resources and priorities will become His. He’s not going to leave you alone.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,  and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—  if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Colossians 1:15-23

Why should Jesus be at the center?

  1. He made you and everything around you. The Son is the image of the invisible God. He is God, full and complete. Jesus lived among us in flesh, fully God. (Hebrews 1:3, John 14:9) Jesus is the first-born over all creation. Everything was created through Him and for Him.
  2. He bought us. (Colossians 1:19) We have been reconciled to God through Christ.

When Jesus is the center point, we see fruit and results in our lives.

Fragile growth is just that, it’s fragile. God never intended for us to stay as we are. He has plans and a purpose for every life. When we put Jesus at the center point of our lives, we can live life as it should be. What is your center point?

Listen to Pastor Michael M. Cook’s sermon series, Fragile Growth, here.

 

 

 

 

15823589_1131921693594167_7730025206413509630_n

Choose Joy

Uncategorized, One comment

By Becky Cook

Tucked away in a Christmas bag from my mom this year was this picture. I almost missed it. Days after Christmas I found it, just a sliver of paper down in some Christmas tinsel. When I looked at it I was overcome with laughter. I could not help but understand the tears of these children and yet at the same time also feel the laughter that was coming from those behind the camera. God just spoke to me through this picture. In the midst of ending 2016 and ushering in the new, fresh year of 2017… we have got to choose JOY.
I hate taking pictures. I don’t want to see what I really look like on the outside. We expect “picture perfect” lives. We don’t want people to see the real US. We can throw fits, cry our eyes out and live in defeat of what life hands us. These kids are miserable. Probably uncomfortable and if one cries its’ a lot easier for everyone to cry. Behind the camera is someone just wanting to capture the sweet little faces of JOY. But the smiles are covered with tears.
Life is hard We think we will be happier if we just had what everyone else has. The perfect life, the perfect relationship, the perfect family, the perfect weight, the perfect health, and on and on. Our journeys don’t work like that.

As the new year rolls in, I am claiming to choose JOY this year.

I may not like the twists in my journey, I may not understand the ups and downs it will bring, I may be overwhelmed with so much JOY I don’t know how to handle it, but I am confident that “He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it”…. I serve a God who has more for me than I can think or even imagine, so I will trust and choose JOY. He knows the plans and His picture of my life will be perfect.
We live in a world that needs salvation, grace, peace, love and most of all JOY. Let’s be the walking examples of this. It’s ok to cry… JOY comes in the morning. These kids will look back one day at this picture and what a story it will tell. It will bring laughter to their lives and so much more meaning to the ones on the other side of the camera. Let the struggles of 2016 be a reminder of God’s presence to walk with us each day and never forsake us, even when we might have lost faith.
Let the new year of 2017 be ushered in with “unspeakable JOY” and a stronger faith in the promises given to us from a GOOD GOOD Father….
#2017ChooseJOY

image1

Shaping a Path

Fragile Growth, Uncategorized, , , Leave a comment

By Karen Polich

How would you describe your life right now?

God has called us to bear abundant fruit. As believers, it is not finished simply when we choose to follow Christ. Salvation through God’s grace is only the beginning. Growth through God’s path should follow.

Pastor Michael M. Cook began a new sermon series, Fragile Growth, from Colossians 1:3-14. What path are we on and is it God’s path for us? Listen to the podcast here.

Let’s look at our lives, praying for God to awaken us from any drifting. What areas are bearing fruit? Where can we grow? New growth is fragile and brings us to a vulnerable place, but as Paul reminds us, we can start with faith, love and hope. When we have faith in Jesus Christ, love for God’s people and hope, we can begin to bear fruit.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people – the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world – just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. Colossians 1:3-6

Paul reminds us we should be ever growing in our walk with the Lord. Many understand the grace of God. It is seen in the image of the crucifixion. God sent Jesus Christ to save us by His grace. What is sometimes missed is the way of God. God’s path for our lives is what sets us up for real growth.

Why do we see believers whose actions contradict their salvation? It is simple. Understanding God’s grace is not the same as understanding God’s path. The space between is where fragile growth occurs. It is where we develop into the difference makers we are called to be.

Examine where you are today. What steps can be taken to bring about the abundant fruit that comes when we go the way of God?

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:8

rjbdtfthi88-greg-weaver

The Coming of Christ

Advent, Uncategorized, , , , , , Leave a comment

By Kristi Sullins

On that night so long ago the angels were charged with proclaiming the miracle of Christ’s birth. He had finally come, the Messiah sent for all mankind. It was the end of the wait, but for everything else, it was just the beginning.

Christ is the beginning of hope, bringing the possibility of a life more abundant than anything we can think. He is the promise of security in the middle of chaos, and strength to journey through any season of life.

He is the beginning of peace. For those who belong to Christ, we have been promised a peace that passes all understanding. That peace finds its beginning and ending with Jesus.

Christ is the beginning of joy for all those who believe. True joy is found in Him, and cannot be shaken by the things of this world. It is His joy that is our strength and our song. It is a joy that survives the changes and struggles of life because it is founded in the One who loves us.

He is the beginning of love, sent from the Father Himself. Love comes from God. His love for us is unwavering, indescribable and undeserved, and the proof of this love was first found in the manger.

The beginning of hope, peace, joy and love is life changing. For the followers of Christ in the Bible, it was compelling enough for them to change the way they worshiped and believed. They changed tradition, which caused many to be rejected by family and friends. Persecution was real for followers of Christ, but what He brought them was worth any struggle.

Christ and His love were too life changing to ignore.

We have that same new beginning. Christ offers us the same hope, peace, joy and love, based on who He is and not on what we deserve. The promises of Advent don’t have to be packed away with the rest of the Christmas decorations but are meant to encompass our current days. Those who are followers of Christ are called to face the future without fear, and the celebration of Advent is meant to remind us that there is no need to fear because the good news proclaimed by the angel in the book of Luke is still the same.

Are you looking towards the coming year with the anticipation of a fresh start and new beginnings or do you feel anchored in the past with its poor choices and scars?  No matter where you find yourself, it is important to remember that the news of the angel, on that holy night, was a message of good news for all people. Christ, our Messiah, has come to set us free, and to give us a hope and future, our new beginning.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to men.

c4c4a94d-0952-4ef1-84e5-ff98c5614d54

Disappointment and the Holidays

Christmas, Uncategorized, , , , One comment

By Karen Polich

The holiday season is like a magnifying glass to disappointment and struggle. It starts before Thanksgiving and builds into Christmas. Challenges that may have been before us all year long become intensified. Deep loss and the grief that follows shakes us to our core. While we may be prepared for a setback here and there, the long-term disappointments that linger for months and years often knock us off our feet.

Pastor Michael M. Cook examined a part of the Christmas story that shows us what it is like to live in disappointment while remaining deeply faithful to God. Listen to the podcast here. Zechariah and Elizabeth spent most of their lives not expecting a child. Yet, their hearts desired to be parents. To add insult to injury, in their culture, it would be seen as disgraceful to not have a child. They were deeply faithful but deeply disappointed. Read Luke 1:5-25.

Zechariah was fulfilling his duties as a priest when the angel came to him. He was a disappointed man lighting incense for a disappointed people. His story of disappointment mirrored the story of God’s people. They had been waiting a long time for God to fulfill His promise of a Messiah. Zechariah and Elizabeth were intertwined with Joseph and Mary. Their story is part of the Christmas story and the story of God’s redemptive plan.

One of the magnificent marks of maturity is the ability to move forward in your faith in disappointing seasons of life. – Michael M. Cook

God is present. He is there in the times of joy and He is there in the disappointment and struggle. Are you swimming in grief? God is right there with you. Can’t see beyond the darkness? God is with you. Stuck where you don’t want to be? God is there.

What do we need to keep faith through disappointment? Time and trust. Time can allow us to see things from a different perspective. While God may or may not reveal the answer to our “Why?”, He will help us see Him more clearly and will build our character through the agony and pain. Disappointment doesn’t mean ultimate defeat. Often we think God has checked out of the situation, but in truth, we have checked out. Trust is the key.

The rare capacity of trusting God while in the midst of struggle is crucial.

When we are in a place we don’t want to be in, we have a choice to trust Him, or turn from Him. When we choose to trust with faith, we are staying in the fray and letting God do His work.

Remain steadfast. God is at work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

cs4finsk2c4-annie-spratt

The Coming of Love

Advent, Uncategorized, , Leave a comment

By Kristi Sullins

With a week to go until Christmas Day, many of us are on the hunt. On the hunt for the perfect gift, or the one that is always out of stock. On the hunt for a parking spot, a dog sitter, a pair of pants that still fit or maybe just one silent night to actually enjoy the thought of Christmas. If you find yourself on the hunt this Christmas, then you will appreciate this. God’s gift of love required no search.

On the night of Christ’s birth, God filled the heavens with His angels to proclaim to the shepherds that the Messiah had come. The shepherds told the people in town about all they saw. The coming of Christ was not kept in secret, hidden for only the knowledge of a select few.

It was not for the sake of prophecy that the message was shared, or to boast at the execution of the impossible. God shared with mankind the coming of His Son because the evidence of His love had come. We know that Christ is the very proof of God’s love because He tells us in His Word. 1 John 4:9 tells us that God’s sending His Son among us was proof of His love. John 3:16 reminds us that His love was so great that He gave us His only Son so that whoever would choose to believe would have eternal life. Romans 5:8 is His anthem of love to all those who feel like they are the exception to His gift because we are reminded that He loved us at our worst and still sent His Son.

There is no doubt the Christ in the manger was God’s physical evidence of love. This fact is important when you remember He came to a group of people who had been waiting for centuries. God had been quiet. Holding on to hope had been a struggle. All the Israelites knew was that life was hard, and not turning out how they thought. What had happened to the covenant given to Abraham?  Where was the land flowing with milk and honey?  It was hard to look at life and see proof that God did love them.

Can you identify with that?

When things don’t go the way we had planned or the struggle feels like it is too much we can question God’s love. When tragedy strikes we struggle to reason how God can let it happen and still say He loves us. We want proof of His love.

Maybe that is why He opened the heavens that night. So proof could be seen; the evidence shared.

The coming of Christ was God’s visible evidence for all generations that He loves us, and that His love is so great He withheld nothing, sending a very piece of the Godhead to us.

Don’t look for evidence of God’s love in your circumstance or current reality. Hold tightly to the manger and cross as proof that the love God has for us is greater than our realities, failures or fears. It is His free gift to us. A gift of redemption, belonging, security and eternity for all who would choose to believe.

manology-with-subtitle

Paving the Way With Strength

Manology, Uncategorized, , , Leave a comment

“If you are not dead, you are not done.” – Pastor Michael M. Cook

God has something for you. Regardless of failures and setbacks, greatness awaits the man who pursues it.

Wrapping up the Manology sermon series in Judges 16, Pastor Michael M. Cook shared what men can do to live in the strength God has given them.

Samson made one mistake after another, creating immense stress in his life. He ignored all warning signs and never took corrective action to be the man God had set him apart to be.

How does this happen? How does a man find himself on a path of brokenness and struggle? The answer is one bad choice at a time. Failure isn’t usually a one and done mistake. It is gradual and ongoing in smaller increments.

Failure inevitably creeps into every life. What happens with that is what makes the difference. It takes great courage to ask God for strength, for one more chance to set things on the right path. We see Samson ask God for one more chance when he brings down the temple, destroying countless Philistines.

Failure is not final. John 10:10 reminds us that Satan would have us think so, but sometimes God’s greatest work comes through our greatest failures.

Do something different. Take corrective action today. Don’t just hope for things to be different.

“We cannot become what we need by remaining what we are. If you don’t change the direction you are going, you’ll likely end up where you are headed.” – Michael M. Cook

Great men pursue greatness every day. Live a life filled with integrity. Be faithful to the Lord. Sadly, Samson waited his entire life to seek God as he should. What are you doing today to pursue the greatness God has laid out for your life?

Listen to the podcast here and learn more about what it means to be a man of God.