A Big Girl Bed

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving this past week.  We drove to Lansing (took 2.5 hours due to traffic) and stayed a few days with family.  On Sunday, we dove into the 6^th week of the “I Am” series by looking at John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  I want to thank Corinne O’Heran for sharing her testimony about trusting God in a very difficult time. 

This past week, my youngest daughter Danielle graduated from her crib to “big girl” bed.  She will be turning 2 years old this next month and my wife would love for her to stay a baby just a little bit longer, but I’m looking forward to the day I don’t have to change any more diapers.  The reason we made the switch from a crib to a bed wasn’t because we were ready as parents, but because Danielle was ready… meaning she has learned how to climb out. 

I wonder how many times spiritually I have remained in the crib, instead of putting effort into climbing out and growing up.  In the crib I am safe.  I don’t have to worry about falling out and I don’t have to worry about something coming in.  But if I remain in the crib, I will never experience the rest of the house.  And if I remain in the house, I will never experience the world outside my front door. 

God has always intended you to climb out of the crib, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  Open your Bible and read the following verses: Hebrews 5:11-6:3 & 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

Part of maturing, involved our own effort.  Our bodies grow physically, but they are toned by our constant movements and use.  Likewise, as we exercise our minds, we learn and retain information and develop in our personalities.  Just like the mind and body, our spiritual life takes effort to develop.  We cannot sit back and just hope that in a moment we will become fully mature spiritually.  It takes effort and dedication as we put time and energy into participating with the Holy Spirit to become more like Jesus.  But if we don’t put the effort in, we will never grow.

So the question this morning, what are you doing to grow in your spiritual maturity.  Are you putting time and effort into your sanctification?  I would like to end this Warehouse by having you read Romans 6:19-22.  As Christ-followers, God expects you to grow spiritually.  Like a plant receiving water to grow, what needs to happen for you to grow?

* * * * * * * * * *

Sunday, December 2, 7 pm – In-Home Prayer Meetings. There’s still time to sign-up.

Our hosts are:  Chris and Teresa Golland
                           Shirley Leversee
                        Bob and Carol Mallett
                          Michael and Corinne O’Heran
                         Steve and Kathy Welch

 

Saturday, December 8, 9 am — Men’s Breakfast. A relaxed morning of fellowship and time to discuss next year’s plans for Men’s Ministry. Please email Dan Crummie to rsvp at dcrummie@cascorp.com

 

“One Step” Commitment  Forms – Please complete and return as soon as possible.        

 

Too much of a good thing...

Last night’s congregational Thanksgiving dinner was fun.  I was thrilled to see a number of recently new families join us for the food and fellowship. 

Can too much of a good thing really be that bad?  This Thursday is Thanksgiving and most of us will partake in a large meal and then join millions of others in the afternoon food-induced coma.  This is not a terrible thing though.  It’s technically a vacation day and getting some extra sleep can be a good thing.  Likewise, Coffee is a good thing… wait… correction…coffee is a great thing.  I am a believer that a person can never drink too much coffee, especially high quality coffee.  One key to having great coffee is brewing it at the right temperature (195-205 degrees).  Most coffee machines are designed to brew coffee at this temperature and then the metal heating pad will keep it at hot temperature until you are ready to enjoy.  However, this is what too much of a good thing can look like when left on the burned overnight.

 I want to be clear, this was not my doing (but I have done this before).  Coffee left on the burner overnight (or for a few days) will eventually cook down into almost nothing and, if left on long enough, could cause damage to the pot, or even worse. 

In reality, too much of one thing will usually have negative consequences.  Even drinking too much water can cause problems, like dilutional hyponatremia, or even death.  So for all you water drinkers out there, you might want to think of switching to coffee!

The Bible encourages us Christ followers to continue doing 2 specific things.  Go ahead and look up Galatians 6:9-10 and Hebrews 10:25 (I am not going to tell you what these 2 things are, so if you want to know you will have to open up your bible and read these passages).  The authors for these passages do not make a case in going overboard with these 2 things.  Instead, they remind us not to stop doing them.  The reason for their reminder is because Satan would have you stop participating in these 2 things.  He doesn’t want you to do them, even in the littlest amount.  I challenge you to put effort into regularly participating in these 2 things the next couple of weeks and see how God uses them as a blessing.

 

Side notes:  This past Sunday, some of you received a letter and challenge in an envelope.  If you did not receive one, you should be getting it in the mail sometime this week.  I encourage you to take part in this challenge as we move forward as a church in building for eternity and inviting others to join along.  Also, this Sunday we start the “Giving Tree” competition in our Sunday school classes.  Each Sunday school class is competing against all the others through donating hats, gloves, and scarves.  Bring new or gently used items in and put them on your class’ tree.  Items will be collected each week and counted.  Christmas Sunday (December 23) will be the last day of the challenge.  All items will be donated to the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission.

2 things

When I think about the future of West K, I get excited.  This church has so much potential, so long as we remain in the potter’s hands.  As we continue to give God glory and to seek out His will for this church, we know that we have two major callings: Creating disciples and reaching the lost.

Our first call is to create disciples (Matthew 28:19).  The staff and leadership have spent a considerable amount of time talking and discussing this calling and the methods we use in doing this.  Simply put, a disciple is someone who is growing to look more like Jesus.  Recently, I have loathed the responsibility I now have as a home-owner to rake and burn leaves.  I have spent hours and hours raking and burning.  I even received some help by a few of you in the congregation in this task.  Here is what I noticed; the longer I stayed outside burning leaves, the more I smelled like it.  Not just my clothes, but my hair (the little that I have) and my skin.  Burning leaves have a very distinct smell and it is as if the smoke has saturated my entire body.  Likewise, discipleship is growing to smell like Jesus.  Not literally, but being saturated by something so distinct that those around you can’t help but notice that you spend time with Jesus.  And that time you spend with Jesus permeates to those around you.  Over the next few weeks and months, you will notice that we will be emphasizing our individual and cooperate discipleship.  We want to encourage and enrich that smell of Jesus on our lives.  This involves every area from talking with your neighbors and co-workers, to parent’s discipleship of their children. 

Our second call is to reach people for Christ.  Each of us has an individual, as well as corporate role to play in sharing the gospel.  There are many ways to do this, but it will not occur without being intentional.  It is not by chance that you live where you live, work where you work, and know those around you.  God has blessed each and every one of us with an opportunity and it’s our responsibility to be intentional with those opportunities.  I used to spend time praying that God would reach the people I know for Christ, unaware that he had positioned me to be used as a means to answer that prayer.  Continue praying for those around you, that God would reveal himself to them and they would see their need for Him as savior and redeemer.  But be aware that God will very likely use you as the method to answer that prayer.

I would encourage you to read Hebrews 10:19-25 today.  May God use this to spur you forward.

 

*Special notes – this Sunday is our Thanksgiving congregational dinner at 5pm.  I hope to see you all there.  Also, keep your ears tuned into the announcements this coming Sunday as I will be sharing some key things up front.

Forgot to post this yesterday

Sorry.  I wrote this yesterday but forgot to post it.  Here it is anyways:

This morning is the big voting day.  We get to vote for all sorts of things: presidential candidates, judges, congress, proposals… 
To be honest, last night I set my alarm to go off about 90 minutes earlier than normal.  My reasoning is that I wanted to arrive at church really early in hopes of getting some solid Bible study time before the normal office noise would kick in.  What escaped my mind was the election and that our church building is one of the many precincts that will be flooded with people and phone calls today.  The church phone has not stopped ringing since 6:30am wondering if this was the place to vote and where we were located.  Distraction after distraction cut its way into the day.  So, I have resorted to attempting to get into some deep study and will be closing my door to the noise.  I don’t often close my door, but today may be a good day for it.

Sometimes we just need to shut out the noise in life and simply be content that God is in control.  Passages like Psalm 46:10 – “Be still and know that I am God” and Psalm 131 – “My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.  But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.  Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.

I am not the biggest fan of elections.  I don’t like talking politics.  It’s not that I am afraid to talk about it or discuss it, I just get a little saddened that most people are more enthusiastic about politics than they are about religion, Christians included.  In fact, politics can make a religious person an extremist (in the negative sense).  The same can be said of Sunday night football, American Pickers, or Storage Wars.  While we have the freedom to vote (I hope you got out to the polls today), our HOPE does not rely in man made things or institutions.  Our HOPE is in Jesus.  Regardless of who wins tonight, that HOPE never changes. 

A good reminder for today comes from Galatians 5:13-18 – “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”   If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.  So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

A couple of things to make note of:

1) Congregational Thanksgiving dinner is November 18th at 5pm.  Invite a friend or a neighboring family to come with you.

2) Thank you to the deacons for taking care of the Children's Ministry wing this past week.  If you didn’t know, they blew insulation into the wing to make sure we keep things warm back there this winter and to increase our energy efficiency.  They saved us a lot of money taking the time to do this as a group and I appreciate their willingness to serve!

3) There will be a guest speaker this Sunday as I will be with the youth ministry at Great Lakes Christian College for a Fall retreat.