When Jesus comes into your heart you are a child in the faith!  You have received knowledge of God and forgiveness of sin.  If you know God, you will seek to be saved and if you are saved, you will seek to know God.  When you accepted Christ, you were forgiven and you are forgiven right now.  Forgiveness is because of the death and resurrection of Jesus and has as it’s purpose making mercy and grace available to those that repent and enter into relationship! 

When we confess our sins, salvation comes into our lives.  Salvation provides us with access to God.  Access to God enables Him to give us power, victory and growth.  When we receive Christ and become a child of faith, we should immediately begin growing.  So HOW MUCH HAVE YOU GROWN LATELY?

Good medicine is medicine that prevents you from getting sick!  This is exactly what the Word of God is!  It is good medicine that will heal us from our hurts and build our resistance to things tha would commonly take us out!  At Northwood, we preach it and teach it, because we believe that it is God’s Word to empower and change our lives!

I hope that you are taking time to get into your Bible and read it everyday!  I hope that as you read, you are thinking about how what you are reading applies to your life and how your life needs to change and adapt to line up with what you are reading.  Especially make sure that you are taking time this month to read through the Ten Commandments.  Think about why God gave you these commands and the difference that they could and should make in your daily living!

I also want to encourage you to come and take advantage of our LIFE classes on Sunday evenings.  We have five different classes that will inspire, encouage and grow you in some incredible and amazing ways!  God gave you some medicine – take it and watch what happens!

Yesterday was a great day for me – I was really excited about sharing the message that God had given me about the thrid commandment.  As I was studying this past week, God really helped me to understand in a freah way the purpose of His commands.  Through commands – God is drawing us closer to Him!  When we hear God, respond to what we are hearing by being obedient, God is glorified and we are blessed!

Read through the commandments!  Take some time to think about what they mean for your life!  Make sure that you have God where He belongs – in first place!  Come on and be honest about this one!  If He is not where He belongs – fix it!  Get rid of your distorted and limited image of God and ask Him to help you to see a glimpse of His glory.  When was the last time you let the bigger than life stuff of God blow you away?

We need to stop misusing God’s name!  I think that the greatest misuse of God’s name is not what people say, but what Christians fail to do!  We talk a good game, but that’s it for most – it’s all just a bunch of talk!  If you really love God and if you really believe that He loves you, then it should change your life and the way that you live it!

Hey gang!  We are different than the rest of the world and we are not like all of those people that go to church, but never really do anything about it!  We are followers of Christ!  He has made a real difference in our lives and we are making a real difference in His Kingdom!  I hope this is a great week for you and I pray you get some victory and growth!

When church becomes about you – it ceases to be church and becomes a club!  For the past few months, I have been battling with how to minister to some people that are a part of the church, yet continue to have a negative and critical spirit.  Most of these people have been in church for most of their lives and should know better!  It’s hard for me to understand their selfishness and unwillingness to look beyond themselves.   When I stop for just a minute and look at what God has done and is doing in the life and ministry of this church – I am amazed at His grace and goodness.  I have tried to talk with some of these people and help them understand the work that God is up to, but they still refuse to have any part of it.  They seem to have their ideas, their agenda and an attitude that their opinion is the only one that really matters.  I love these folks – I really do and I am so sorry that they will not allow the Spirit to communicate a truth that is so much bigger than personal opinion.

Church is about ministry!  It’s about Believers coming together and giving of themselves.  It is about sacrifice and putting those that do not yet know Jesus ahead of those that do.  It is about growing, changing and everyday becoming a little more like the one that saved our souls.  I blame myself for part of this wrong attitude of a handful, because I have always attempted to try to keep everyone happy and fulfilled – believers and non-believers!  I have tried to lead and grow a church that reaches out to non-believers with a message of hope, while encouraging believers to be fulfilled and satisfied.  My mistake has been trying to keep believers fulfilled and satisfied. That’s not my job!  If you are a believer,  Jesus will keep you fulfilled and satisified, if you will do your part to pursue your relationship with Him.  If you are pursuing a real, meaningful and growing relationship with Him, then He will tell you that the church is not about you, it’s about reaching others with the amazing news of His grace, forgiveness and restoration.

I am not interested in leading a club, but I sure am fired up about leading the church – God’s church!  And I am very thankful for all of you that stand with me and behind me as I charge forward for the cause of Christ.  I love you and thank you for loving me and being patient with me as I continue to pursue the call that God has placed on my life!

I grew up in a very cool little town called Williamston.  I love my town and all of the people that helped to make it special for me growing up!  I remember when I was getting ready to go off to school, one of the older and wiser men in our community said to me:  “Don’t ever forget where you come from!”  He was reminding me to always remember and be influenced by what I was, not what I was becoming!  He knew then, what I am just now beginning to learn, and that is this:  My value is not something out there waiting to be earned!  I am valuable right here and right now, not because of who or what I am going to be, but because of what I already am:  A unique. one of a kind, special creation of God!

Don’t Forget Where You Come From!  We were and are sinners – people lost without any real or meaningful direction, but with Jesus we are sinners saved by Grace – people that now have a special gift that they never dreamed or imagined possible!  The devil wants us, but He can’t have us, because we belong to God and His Kingdom.  I am not of this world, I am only passing through.  I am headed back to where I came from!  I came from God and I am headed back to God and every day I get a little closer, a little more fulfilled and a little more excited about all that I am right now, right here today!

Jesus said in John 8:31-32  “If you continue in my Word, thn you are truly disciples of mine and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free!”  I think one of the great tragedies of the world that we live in today, is that most people don’t have anything to believe in.  We have things that we like, care about and even some things that interest us, but most people don’t have a whole lot that they really believe in anymore.  When I say “believe in”, I am talking about something that you are willing to fight for, something that you are willing to die for, something that has challenged and changed your life so much, that you can’t live life without it!

This is what the Bible – God’s Word should be for those of us that call ourselves Christian.  If we really believe it – we will read it, be corrected by it and grown through it!  Jesus said:  “If you continue in my Word…”  This does not mean that we pick it up once every now and then.  This means that we live with it and by it every moment of every day.  The secret to a powerful, fulfilled and exciting Christian life is found in our BELIEVING that God has spoken and is speaking to us.  And this is exactly what the Word is all about!  We know that we are really believing, when we find ourselves living according to the Word.

It’s not easy!  In fact, it is a constant challenge!  It is not easy to live life in and through the Word, because the word is continually attacking.  This is why the Word is so important – it is our stregth and power to overcome the attacks of the world.  It is not easy to live life in and through the Word, because the world is continually distracting.  The Word helps us to keep our focus, so that even when distractions come, we stay on course and in right direction.  It is not easy to live life in and through the Word because the world is continually convincing us to live according to something other than God’s Word.  The Word helps us to understand that the best way is always God’s way!

Jesus said:  “If you continue in my Word, then you are truly disciples of mine!”  Does the Word really matter?  It matters if you want to be a true disciple of Christ.  We have someone amazing to believe in and He has given us something amazing to believe in.  Let your belief bring you back to His Word and let His Word grow you into something that is beautiful, amazing and powerful!

The chatter is beginning to pick up about the comment that Oprah made on her web cast about Jesus being her way to God, but not the only way!  Oprah is a very smart and talented person – she would have to be, to enjoy the success that she has experienced.  I think that she has and continues to do a lot of good things, but she has missed it on this one!

Jesus says of Himself in John 14:1-6 “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, but by me!” 

JESUS IS THE WAY!  The world would have you believe that there are multiple ways to God.  I think that there may be a million ways or more to know about God, but there is only one way to know Him and that is in a personal realtionship that is comes through our belief in Jesus Christ His Son!  There may be a lot of different ways to God, but they all have to ultimatley go THROUGH Jesus!  Jesus said in John 10:9  “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  He will come and go and find pasture!”  Play around with this truth and your are playing with fire!

JESUS IS THE TRUTH!  Truth is absolute, not relative!  Truth is based on fact and fact is provided by our Creator and Sustainer!  John 1:17 says:  “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  God has given us His law, which teaches us how to live our lives for Him and in blessing.  And for the areas where we all fall short and there are many He has given us His Son Jesus, Who provided grace which forgives and restores and truth which sets us free!  We don’t make the truth – the truth makes us!

JESUS IS THE LIFE!  This is not just some abstract concept to get us through another day.  Jesus really is life and when we live in a real, meaningful and personal relationship with Him, it changes everything!  Jesus is our way of life, through a personal relationship we have a reason to live and find fulfillment through that reason.  We need to stop chasing life and start chasing Jesus.  There are a lot of people out there who have religion – I’m not talking about religion – I’m talking about relationship!  Jesus came so that every person, not just those that you and I deem worthy – every person, those that look and act like us and those that don’t, might have a real, personal and meaningful realtionship with God, Who created us, loves us and has an amazing plan for our lives.  When you really get to know this Jesus, you wll GO the WAY, KNOW the TRUTH and LIVE the LIFE!

I guess that one of my all time favorite sayings is:  God Is Good!  I believe it, because I experience it again and again and again!  Lately, I have had a hard time accepting how ugly, mean spirited and negative some people in our world can be, especially church people.  I often think to myself:  “If they could just realize how they are being, then there is no way that they would be the way they are!”  But there is the rub – they can’t realize how they are being, they refuse to realize how they are being and the result is they miss the opportunity for personal growth and the ability to be a blessing.

I have had some encounters with some of these kinds of people over the past few months and have always had in my heart a desire for all of us to go together to the amazing and incredible places that I know that God has for us.  It burdens my heart to realize that not everybody wants to go to that place and not everybody will go to that place.  I sometimes get so burdened that I beat up on myself – thinking there must be something else I can do, there must be some better way or there must be something I can do or say that I am not doing or saying!

The reason God is so good to me this week is because He has set me free from a jail of my own making.  He has shown me that I can’t take anybody anywhere.  I can show them the way, but I can’t make them travel and I can’t travel for them.  God has confirmed in my life again and again in recent days that I am doing a good job of showing the way and I need to stay with it and not get distracted!  Thank you to so many of you for letting God speak through you to me in such a positive and beautiful way.

God is good in your life too!  Because if you are paying attention – He is telling you some things about yourself and your relationship with Him.  I hope you hear Him and respond to what you are hearing!  God Bless, Keep It Real & Press On!

Our world has warped Jesus!  So many of us have made Him into what we want Him to be and taken way from all that He really is.  There are so many different pictures of Jesus today and the big problem is that most of them are wrong!  The problem with our distorted view of Jesus is that our picture of Jesus influences the action of our lives.  Take just a minute to think about your picture of Jesus and the kinda influence that it has on your life! 

We need more than ever to really see and hear from Jesus!  When we get our picture right – we will get our lives right!  My picture of Jesus matters, because it influences everything else!  When my picture is right, it centers my life and helps me to really live according to His purpose and not my own self-generated and often defeating interest.

One of my favorite pictures of Jesus comes from John 4:1-29 when Jesus encountered the woman at the well.  Three things jump out of this passage and grab my attention about who Jesus really is! 

First,  I noticed that Jesus went where He was needed!  Even when He did not feel like it – He was looking for an opportunity to make a difference in someone else’s life.  He could have just went home and went to bed, but He knew that there was someone that needed what He had to offer and so He went to a place that others avoided.  (Samaria)

Second, Jesus stepped out of the circle that others had drawn for Him!  He not only went to Samaria, but had the audacity to have a conversation with a woman of all people.  This conversation with this woman was about so much more than a drink of water.  Jesus was reaching into her life to bring about change that would bless her and others.  Jesus reached into her life before there was any change on her part.  That’s because real change can only come through the power of a right relationship with Jesus!

Third, Jesus ministered to the real need!  Jesus knows the truth, even when you think you’ve got the rest of the world fooled!  A lot of people think that they know Jesus, but fail to recognize Him when He is standing right in front of them!  We need a real relationship with Jesus, a relationship that allows us to see Him and recognize Him at work in our lives!

We are the body of Christ!  If others are going to see Jesus, they will see Him through you and me!  Where are you needed?  Stop doing what is only comfortable and pleasing to you.  We are not here on this earth to be satisfied - we are here to be empowered!  Where does God want you to go and what does God want you to do?    We’ve got circles that we’ve created and that others have created for us.  These circles are holding us back from being what God created us to be and from doing what God created us to do.  Bust out of the circles that are holding you back from God’s wonder working power.  Think about this:  If it’s not God’s idea, then what’s the point?  How will you meet the real needs of others?  Show them Jesus – the real Jesus!  Look past the surface and to the heart and you will discover that we all need the love, forgiveness and restoration that only Jesus can bring.  Find God’s right direction for your life and make a commitment to share that right direction with others!

As I read through the Scriptures, it is always amazing to me, just how personal the words are!  A lot of people read the Bible and never hear the personal message that God is delivering to them.  I know so many people who know what the Bible has to say, but all they have is knowledge.  Knowledge without application is useless!  I think that is why Jesus was always making His message extra personal!  In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus says:  “You are the light of the world!”  Jesus is talking to us as Believers and telling us that we are to light up this depressing, discouraging and dark world with His inspiration, encouragement and light.  My job as a Christian is to illuminate the darkness with the presence and power of Christ in and through my life!

Light is what we are, not just what we do!  When Jesus says:  “You are the light of the world!”  We need to understand that this is about so much more than just representation!  This is about supplying the opposite of what the world is used to.  We do this by daily walking with Jesus and continually lighting the way!

You Influence Does Matter!  We like to pretend that things aren’t so bad, but the truth is:  This is a dark world and many of our Churches have become dark churches!  Don’t trade ways, hand over or give up the gift of light!  We have a mission:  We are to shine bright Jesus this world in which we live.  Let Jesus shine through your life and you will ILLUMINATE and chase away the darkness.  When Jesus is shining though your life you will ACCENTUATE the bad that needs to be avoided and the good that needs to be grabbed!  If you are really lighting this world with the presence of Jesus you will VALIDATE and help people to see, so they can believe!

Are you illuminating and chasing away darkness?  Do you accentuate the positives and get rid of the negatives?  Have you validated Christ and His power, so that others see Jesus in you?  Get your light out from under that basket and put it up on a lamp stand so that everyone might enjoy te blessing of God’s presence and power!