The Reason for my Joy
Need a reason to smile? Pay careful attention to the joys of your everyday life and be transformed by your loving, gracious, wonderful, perfectly outrageous God.
Need a reason to smile? Pay careful attention to the joys of your everyday life and be transformed by your loving, gracious, wonderful, perfectly outrageous God.
In an attempt to come to an understanding of worship, it is helpful to realize there is a difference between the essence of worship and the expression of worship.
Others may see you as someone you’re not but God is never fooled. He notices everything and knows if you’re a fake. When you stop trying to be someone else, you free yourself up to be who you are.
Just “act medium.” Believable. Honest, human, thoughtful, and down to earth. Regardless of your elevated position or high pile of honours or row of degrees or endless list of achievements, just stay real. Who did you do it for anyway?
As we enter adulthood in our faith, one of the most significant realizations to dawn upon us is a healthy understanding of and appreciation for the church. Most go through real battles in coming to this conclusion. In this message, we want to come to terms with the role of the church, its importance in our lives, some of the major reasons for its effectiveness, and why Christ established it in the first place.
Have you ever met someone whose life seems to be a never-ending string of amazing, marvellous, wonderful, and awesome? Do you feel like punching them?
There’s nothing wrong with dividing up your life into pieces and sometimes emotions need to be dealt with at a later time, once you’ve gained perspective or gone for help. But know that God wants to be a part of your everyday life.
Itʼs a bit dismaying to realize that you’re going to be spending eternity with people in the family of God you don’t even speak with on earth! Quite frankly, when someone has wounded us with his or her sharp quills, it’s natural to want to keep our distance. But we do need each other, needles and all!
God has wired us to find comfort, security, and identity in the familiar, the routine, our customs and traditions. Losing them or changing them can throw us off balance and that’s uncomfortable.
With extraordinary devotion for Christ and the love of God’s people, Charles Simeon faithfully preached in the same church for 54 years. His commitment and patient endurance through great opposition is a model we should look to emulate.