A Legacy of Love

This week and next, we are focused on living a legacy of love.  Our series FIRST COMES LOVE began with God's amazing, unconditional, self-less, life-giving love. I hope you are inviting God's love into your life.  If we reflect this kind of love in our households, our relationships will be fruitful and we will be fulfilled.  Most marriage failures (not all) are failures of love!  The Bible tells us "LOVE NEVER FAILS!" (1 Corinthians 13:13)

One of the products of God's fruitful love in our lives is companionship.  We're all searching for a soulmate, right?!  Companionship fills our lives with joy and hope.  A great companion builds up and takes care of their spouse.  When marriage is filled up with love and companionship, a deep and abiding friendship is built.  Two people--no longer two, but one, long to be together - talking, laughing, planning, and praying.  This is God's plan for marriage -- unity, fruitfulness, and fulfillment!

It all begins with love.  Love is the foundation.  Love grows friendship and friendship produces unity and trust.  Trust builds a legacy of love.  Your legacy of love can impact your children, your extended family, friends, your church, and your place of employment.

Living a legacy of love begins when a person invites God's love into their life, relationships, and household.  After that, the fun begins!  Learning how to live a life of love and harmony in your marriage is not always easy.  It takes some work, some humility, and a willingness to grow.

This Sunday, we are going to take a look at some specific attitudes and steps (from the Bible) which will build up your marriage and produce fruitfulness and fulfillment in your life.  I encourage you to make plans to join us.  It could change your year.  See you at New Life this Sunday!  Pastor Tom

Broken Together

Real excited about this morning's message at New Life.  Last week we began a new  series entitled, "First Comes Love . . ."  Our focus this morning is the love story in Ruth and how God used Ruth's character through brokenness and bitterness to accomplish his plan of redemption.

Along the way, we will be asking ourselves how we can become a "great companion" like Ruth.  I really believe that great companions make for great marriages.  Here's 10 building blocks of a great marriage from Our Daily Bread Ministries . . .

#1: Lifelong commitment

#2: Shared identity

#3: Absolute faithfulness

#4: Well-defined roles

#5: Unreserved love

#6: Mutual submission

#7: Sexual fulfillment

#8: Open communication

#9: Tender respect

#10: Spiritual companionship

See you at New Life!  Pastor Tom

First Comes Love

Stay tuned for a series on Love, Marriage, and Family.  FIRST COMES LOVE  is a series focusing on love, marriage and family.

Love and romance are big topics in pop culture and in our everyday lives.  Marriage and family can make us or break us.  What we really need is God's wisdom on how to live with love and build long-lasting relationships that are filled with a God-kind-of-love.

Join New Life through out February as we celebrate love and build up marriage and family in our community.

THE SONG -- COUPLE'S CONFERENCE

Looking forward to this year's couple's conference on March 13-14, 2015.  In February, Pastor Tom will be preaching a series on love, marriage, and family entitled, "First Comes Love".  At the conference, we will enjoy two evenings focused on the importance of true love, marriage, and family.  The SONG is a movie produced by City on a Hill and explores the human search for love and meaning pointing us back to God and true love.

Check out the trailer at http://www.thesongmovie.com.  During the conference, we will be using the DVD small group kid and additional resources.  Make plans now to attend the conference with your spouse or soon to be spouse.

Lazarus and Jesus

As early as 390 AD, there is historical evidence that believers were worshipping at the tomb of Lazarus. The first mention of a church dedicated to Saint Lazarus is by the church father Jerome. Worshipping at a church where Jesus had raised someone from the dead must have been quite encouraging to people's faith. I'm sure it made up for the occasional bad sermon.

This past week, we took a look into the story of Jesus and Lazarus. There is so much to this story of death and life. John's gospel tells us that Lazarus, a friend of Jesus was sick (11:1) and eventually passed form this life because of his sickness. When Jesus showed up Mary and Martha felt he was late, but Jesus had come to Bethany that day to do something completely unimaginable--Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead. Here's some important truths that comes from this story of resurrection life . . .

1) Sickness . . . we all face it. With all of our doctors and hospitals (and PTL for them), we still face sickness and disease everyday. The causes of premature death are really not that uncommon. On any given Sunday, there are people present at New Life who are struggling with heart conditions, breathing problems, cancers, and the common cold. the commonality of sickness is perhaps the reasons we still find the ministry of Jesus so compelling to us today. Jesus was a miracle worker and a healer. Luke records the focus of Jesus' ministry with these words, ""The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19).

2) Friendship . . . we all need it.  Even Jesus had friends and he was a good friend to others.  John 11 reveals that Jesus was quite close to the family of Lazarus.  When Lazarus died, Jesus cried (11:35).  Other portions of the gospels tell us that he was often in Bethany at their home eating, teaching, or just relaxing.  Jesus relationship with Lazarus reminds us that we have been offered a similar relationship with God in Christ Jesus.  The popular song, "I am a friend of God" is actually biblical!  Have you have put your faith and trust in Christ, you can consider the God of the universe your friend.  Wow!

3) Faith . . . we all want it!  I often feel like the man who said to Jesus, "I believe, help my unbelief." (Mark 9:24)  If you are a follower of Jesus, you believe and you want your faith to grow so that you completely trust God.  The story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead highlights how important your faith really is--not just for answers to prayer, but how important it really is to God.  Jesus even prayers before he raises Lazarus.  He prays not because he need a pep-rally with the Father (11:41-42).  He prays so that his followers would be encouraged to have faith in God and to pray!

4) Supernatural power . . . we can't live without it.  In today's world, we are pretty self-sufficient.  If we get sick, we pop a pill.  If we face some really big challenge, we seek the help of an expert.  Lazarus's tory reminds us that oftentimes there is no human help available for the struggles and set backs we face in life.  Only God can save us!  That's the ultimate lesson of Lazarus' resurrection.  Only Jesus could help a dead man.  Without him, there was no hope!  When Jesus came mourning turned to laughter and death to life!

Lazarus' story encourages me to trust God no matter what and to thank him for friendship and supernatural power.  We all face struggles and sickness, but when Jesus shows up anything is possible.  I'm praying he will show up in my life and my church!  I hope you will too!

Get Out of the Boat!

Jesus could walk on water!  No big surprise, right?!  Jesus could raise the dead, open the blind eye, cause the lame to walk, and he fed the 5,000 with just 2 fish and five loaves of bread (Matthew 14).  So walking on water for Jesus is no big surprise.

If you read the story of Jesus walking on the water in Matthew's gospel you encounter another amazing part of the story -- Peter walked on the water with Jesus.  Matthew records that after seeing Jesus, Peter asked if he could come out on the water.  Jesus called Peter out of the boat and just for a moment he walked on water with Jesus.

Now Peter was just an average guy like you or me, and yet he walked on the water.  By faith, he got out of the boat and walked with Jesus!  I wonder what it would take for us to walk on the water with Jesus today?  If we asked him, would he bid us come?  If we were willing to move past our fears and "get out of the boat" would something miraculous happen?

For most of us, walking on a lake in the midst of a storm isn't a part of God's plan, but stepping out by faith and walking with Jesus in the everyday storms of our lives is a part of God's plan.  In what area of your life might God be asking you to "get out of the boat"?


If Jesus calls, go ahead and get out of the boat.  Believe God for the miraculous, and begin walking with Jesus!

Gift Discovery

You are gifted!  It's true we all have natural abilities and talents which can be used for God's glory.  We also have available to us gifts of the Holy Spirit which are supernatural, spiritual gifts designed to build up God's work.

Last night at New Life's Midweek Fellowship we focused on discovering gifts--natural and spiritual gifts.  One of the questions for discussion was this . . . "What is the difference between natural gifts or talents and supernatural or spiritual gifts talked about in the Bible?"

Here's what we came up with in the Bible study discussion.

1. A natural talent of gift is the result of genetics or training, while spiritual gifts are the result of the
     Spirit's presence and power in the church or a believer's life.
2. A natural talent can be possessed by anyone; spiritual gifts are only possessed by Christians.
3. While natural talents and spiritual gifts should be used for God's glory; spiritual gifts are given to
     individual believers in the church for the specific purpose of building up the kingdom of God.
     Natural talents on the other hand can be used for entirely non-spiritual pursuits.

I'm looking forward to more great discussion on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in upcoming weeks.  Come join us on Thursdays at 6 PM at the church (1300 Blue Ridge Road).  We all need more of the Spirit's presence and power in our Christian lives.

See you Sunday, Pastor Tom

A New Year's Resolution!

January is a great time of year for a fresh start!  Ever think that this might be the greatest year ever in your life?  I've thought about a few resolutions worth striving towards in 2015.  Here's a short list . . .

1. Spend more time in prayer -- In previous years, I've selected new devotional guides and purchased journals.  These are all good ideas.  This year I'm focused on spending more time in God's presence listening for God's voice -- for his grace to transform my life and his guidance to direct me in every endeavor.

2. Spend more time at church -- I'm a pastor, so over the last 20 plus years, I've spent quite a bit of time at church and I can testify that church attendance hasn't hurt me in the least.  In fact, it has enriched my life in many ways.  Church attendance has made me a better steward of my time, a better steward of my finances, and a better steward of priorities in my life.

3. Take some special travel trips -- I've already planned a special fishing trip and a potential missions trip for 2015.  Can't wait.  I'm also hoping that Jeni will plan a vacation for just the two of us.

4. Give more to God's Kingdom -- It is truly more blessed to give than to receive.  You really can't out give God, but I want to keep trying.  In 2015, I want to give more to the church and more to kingdom causes than I did in 2014.  

I'm sure there are many other worthy resolutions like loosing weight or exercising more, but I'm convinced that if I accomplish the four listed above, all of the other desired life changes can happen as well.

I'd love to hear about some of your new year's resolutions.  E-mail me at tom@newlifecolumbia.org

Pastor Tom