Our #1 Priority
April 12, 2011
What is your number one priority? The scriptures tell us that it should be
to love God. It’s so simple, and yet somehow we find our selves often,
so far off track. We let so many things in our lives crowd God out of
our hearts and lives. Still, even with our wayward hearts going their on
way, God passionately pursues us, and sweeps us off our feet, to
convince us of his incredible love. We are God’s number one priority.
Pastor Jim
Be still and listen to what God is saying to you!
Daily Grace
April 11, 2011
I have a rock in my office that is etched with two words; FIRST STONE. It is a reminder that only the one without sin can cast the first stone. It comes from John 8:7 ; When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” This rock reminds me each time I see it of God’s abundant grace for all of his children.
Have you felt the grace of God lately? On your worst days, does God’s grace seem real? How would you complete this sentence: Jesus, I want to experience your grace much more because…
Pastor Jim
John 8:3-5
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, [4] they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. [5] Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
What did Jesus say? He could have said, “Yes, that’s what the law demands. Come on, everyone. Pick up a rock, and let’s get this over with.” But he didn’t. This women deserved death. Jesus gave her grace. After all the accusers had left, Jesus stood alone with the woman and asked her, “Woman, where are they Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you, Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Grace is the very nature of God. God’s grace doesn’t excuse sin, or minimize it. The grace of God looks sin in the face in all its ugliness-and forgives. No matter what you’ve done, God’s grace is greater. No matter how big or how bad your sin may be, God’s grace provides forgiveness, hope and restoration. God’s grace is unlimited. God’s grace is at work in our lives from beginning to end.
We tend to make two mistakes regarding the grace of God. When things are going well, we don’t even think about it; but when things are falling apart, we think it’s so bad that even God can’t fix it.
“You best days are not so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace, however, on your worst days, you’re not so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.” –Jerry Bridges.
Grace is not some ointment that we dab on when we feel bad. It is the air we breathe in our relationship with Christ.
Are you eager to pick up that first stone, to throw at other law breakers? Have felt the stones in the hands of others, ready to be thrown at you? Be still and listen to what God is saying to you!
Announcements for April 10, 2011
April 10, 2011
Announcements April 10 Announcements
ATTENTION SENIOR CITIZENS
April 10, 2011
Our confirmation students
have expressed an interest in reach-ing out to the Seniors in our congregation. The students, 6th to 8th grades are offering to volunteer to help around your home with yard work, gardening, sweeping out garages, etc. I am in hopes that we can book one hour’s work at various homes throughout the spring and summer. If you have a need,
please call LeAnn Kroll at 860-276-0036. I will organize the students. An adult will remain with the students while they are at your home.
ATTENTION ALL LADIES OF ZION!!!!!!
April 10, 2011
We are so excited to announce the beginning of a women’s group at ZION! We have many exciting ideas such as a recipe swap and sample party, a self improvement night, game night, guest speak-ers and so much more!!! Most of all we want this group to be for all of us so your ideas are important to us to make this group a success. Our first meeting is on Sat. April 30th at 5:15. Please come and join us for an evening of friendship and laughter.
We are also currently planning a ―Celebration of the Woman of Zion‖ dinner. More information will be coming. Please contact Dawne Cappellino at 860-919-5060 or Lydia Holbrook at 860-919-3545 with any questions or for more information.
BE A DOER
April 7, 2011
Our churches are full of armchair Christians. We watch people who are actively serving God and give a play-by-play analysis: “He should have done it this way.” “She shouldn’t have done it that way.” Armchair Christians are faithful to go to Bible studies and worship services. We enjoy singing and we know a good sermon when we hear it. We read our Bible occasionally and even pray when the need arises. But when it comes to taking action, that is when we find excuses. We are hearers, not doers. What moves your feet and hands, not just your mind?
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!
James 1:25
But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God-the free life!-even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
The New Testament writes, James, calls us to open our eyes and see the need around us. The people who need God’s love are everywhere. People who are struggling with divorce, people who are depressed, people who have been hurt emotionally, people who have been abandoned, people who are new to the community, single parents wrestling with parenting. Being a doer of the word means we notice these people and reach out to help them.
Max Lucado reminds us that, “God does not call the qualified, but qualifies the called.” God takes everyday normal people and uses them to do normal everyday things that mixed with love, become life giving events.
What is your passion? What makes your heart race when you see it? Is it hunger? Is it injustice? It is homelessness? Is it violence against women? Is it getting clean water to a village? Healthcare for all? What ministry, mission get’s your heart racing and you are moved into action? This is what it means to be a doer. Sometimes we haven’t taken the time or energy to see what rattles our hearts.
I know what rattles God’s heart. It’s when we have lukewarm lives that has us sitting in the armchairs of life, rather than putting God’s word in practice, allowing God to work in us and through us. Be a doer, not just a hearer.
Be still and listen to what God is saying to you!
TRUE WORSHIP
April 6, 2011
What is authentic, true worship? When we are walking with Christ, our lives are acts of worship all day every day. Every single thing we do to honor God is worship. God is looking for a generation of “walking worshipers,” not just people who sing songs to him. Today, the words of praise we sing are to often disconnected from our hearts and our actions. “Walking Worshipers” connect the dots; their words match their actions. Is your life an act of worship?
Pastor Jim
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Michael Duduit, Editor of Preaching now. Wrote this week on What is worship?
In a recent issue of his One Minute Uplift newsletter, pastor Rick Ezell writes: “George Barna surveyed thousands of churchgoing Christians. The question was asked: ‘Have you ever experienced God in a worship service?’ Only one-third said they regularly experience God in church worship. “It is safe to say that true, life-changing encounters with the living God are missing from many of our churches. We desperately need a life-changing glimpse of the greatness, the awesomeness, the wonder, the power, the mercy, the goodness and the lovingkindness of the God we serve.
“The word worship conjures up all kinds of images in people’s minds. Simply said: Worship is declaring the worth of God. The word worship comes from the Old English word that means “worthship.”
So with that definition in mind, we don’t worship God for what we get out of it, but to give God the honor that is due Him, recognizing His worth, His value, His place in our church and His claim on our lives.
“Worship, therefore, is not a weekly pep talk to rally the troops and win the contest. Worship is not a motivational seminar to make us feel good about ourselves. Worship is not the Christian alternative to a Saturday night rock concert or a Beethoven symphony. Worship occurs when people encounter the God who loves them and desires a relationship with them. Worship is a meeting between God and His people. Worship does not lead to an encounter with God. It is an encounter with God.” May you have the opportunity for authentic worship in the days ahead.
Be still and listen to what God is saying to you!
GROW UP
April 6, 2011
It’s not easy to grow up. Most of time we become so comfortable in the place that were at, that we don’t want to stretch, to reach, to risk for something new. Think of the challenges we face growing up; walking, toilet training, school, driving, work, paying bills).It’s true in life and it’s also true in faith. It’s been said that many Christians live with a third grade education. Meaning that they stopped coming to Sunday School in third grade. And so they live with that level of Christian Education. Have you dusted off your Bible? Have you participated in a Bible Study that stretched, informed and challenged your faith? Growing up is always hard work.
Pastor Jim
I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. [12] By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one-baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago!
The writer of Hebrews told his readers that it was time for them to grow up. They were still babies in the faith.
We are often babies in our faith too. The Pew Forum’s religious knowledge survey given in September 2010 included 32 questions about various aspects of religion: the Bible, Christianity, Judaism, Mormonism, world religions, religion in public life, and atheism and agnosticism.
The average respondent answered 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions correctly. Just 2% of those surveyed answered 29 or more questions correctly (including just eight individuals, out of 3,412 surveyed, who scored a perfect 32); 3%
Questions on Bible Knowledge On the other hand, most Americans are able to correctly answer at least half of the survey’s questions about the Bible. For example,
- Roughly seven-in-ten (71%) know that, according to the Bible, Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
- More than six-in-ten (63%) correctly name Genesis as the first book of the Bible.
- And more than half know that the Golden Rule — “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” — is not one of the Ten Commandments.
On the full battery of seven questions about the Bible (five Old Testament and two New Testament items) Mormons do best, followed by white evangelical Protestants. Atheists/agnostics, black Protestants and Jews come next, all exhibiting greater knowledge of the Bible than white mainline Protestants and white Catholics, who in turn outscore those who describe their religion as nothing in particular.
If you were given a knowledge test about your faith, how do you think you would do? Do you know what you believe?
Many Americans are devoted readers of Scripture: More than a third (37%) say they read the Bible or other Holy Scriptures at least once a week, not counting worship services. But Americans as a whole are much less inclined to read other books about religion. Nearly half of Americans who are affiliated with a religion (48%) say they “seldom” or “never” read books (other than Scripture) or visit websites about their own religion, and 70% say they seldom or never read books or visit websites about other religions.
Baby food is great for babies, but as adults we need food that can nourish our bodies. As adults we also need solid food to nourish our faith. What are you eating? How are you nourishing your faith?
Be still and listen to what God is saying to you!
GOD-AND
April 5, 2011
We often think and hear that the problems of this world are success, wealth, peace and rest. God, certainly gives these to some of us. The problem is not the blessings, but rather where those blessings reside in us. If they are competing with Jesus for the affection of our hearts. That’s a Problem. It’s right here, in our self-centeredness, that we often then begin to use God to get what we want, instead of worshiping him as the Lord of our live. All of us wrestle with “God and” conflicts in our hearts from time to time. They can be hard to identify, because they often get mingled with Christian lingo and practices. We may look just fine on the outside while we are practicing idolatry on the inside. This conflict is what are pondering today.
Pastor Jim
2 Corinthians 11:3
And now I’m afraid that exactly as the Snake seduced Eve with his smooth patter, you are being lured away from the simple purity of your love for Christ.
How can you tell if we want things too much? Maybe by asking four more questions?
- What do we pray about?
If our prayers are usually only centered on getting more of God’s blessings, then we may be using God to get what we want. - How do we respond when someone has more than we do?
How deep is your compassion? When we someone get a new car, new clothes, a new job, or an scholarship, are we sincerely glad for them, or do we smile and pat them on the back but think, “She doesn’t deserve that. I do”? - Do we get angry when God doesn’t give us what we want? If we have a God-And demand, we are sure we deserve whatever anyone else has-and a little bit more. And Anger boils when it doesn’t arrive as planned.
- Do we feel sorry for ourselves when God doesn’t come through the way we wanted? Why me? Why is it always me? Doesn’t God care about me anymore? Self-pity rather than thankfulness moves us from “God-And” to “God, but”
This week:
- when you pray, don’t just go through the motions and hope God is happy with the effort. Look for Jesus. Listen.
- When you study the Bible, look for Jesus in each thought and each verse, and talk to him about what you find.
- When you worship, sing to Jesus himself, not for those around you.
- When you serve others, serve as if you were serving our Lord Jesus himself.
Be still and listen to what God is saying to you!
The Cross: Are You Beyond It?
April 4, 2011
Today’s devotion asks us to consider how we view the cross of Christ. There are crosses everywhere, we hand them around our necks, they hang from rear view mirrors in cars. We have them in our homes, on our shelves and on our walls. Some of our crosses have the body of Jesus on them and some of them are bare. The question to ponder this first Monday in April is; What does the cross mean to me? We’re in the fourth week of Lent and soon we will hear again of Jesus’ death on the cross from the gospels of Matthew and John. What will you hear differently this year?
The Cross: Are you beyond it?
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
The cross of Christ is not only the source of our salvation, it is our highest motivation, our clearest example of obedience, and it draws us to rich intimacy with the one who loves us that much.
Has the cross become trivial? It is a good luck charm that we wear to keep us safe from harm? Is it a reminder that you are loved today by the creator of all?
A lot of us think, I’ve done that. I became a Christian when I was a baby at baptism, or fifteen when I was confirmed, or when I married my spouse. If that’s you attitude, you have no idea what the cross is about. We need to think about the cross of Jesus everyday of our lives. We never get any deeper than the cross. Everything we say and do needs to be filtered through the sacrifice Christ made on the cross. At every crossroad in life, the question is not necessarily, “What would Jesus do?”, but more accurately, “What has he already done of the cross.” and “Will my decision honor the cross?”
Don’t take the cross of Jesus for granted. Don’t trivialize it by wearing it as a token without feeling intense gratitude for what it means. Don’t reduce Jesus’ death to only an example to follow. It is more. Our entire lives and all of eternity will be spent trying to grasp the power and the depth of what the cross of Jesus means. There is nothing deeper.
How does the cross shape: your identity? Your motivations? Your goals and desires? How you relate to other people, especially those who have hurt you?
Be still and listen to what God is saying to you!
