Church today has become about a lot of stuff that it was never intended to be!  All of the stuff distracts us and keeps us from being successful, the way that God wants us to be successful!  God gave the church it’s marching orders with the Great Commission – we are to go into ALL of the world and MAKE DISCIPLES!  Our mission is to help people who do not know Jesus to come to a place where they know Him in a real, personal and life changing way!

Maybe instead of being called  a “member” of a church – we should be called a “missionary”, because isn’t that more of what we are supposed to be and do?  We need to start seeing ourselves as representatives of Jesus – sent into our communities to bring healing, purpose and direction!

We need to stop looking at church as a place to go and instead see it as something that we are day in and day out!  Remember – the church is not the building – it’s the people!

We need to look for Jesus in our community, figure out what He is up to and join Him in His work!  (ie. Experiencing God!)  By the way, He would love for us to join Him!  I was wondering:  Do we have to ask Him to join us and bless our work, if we have joined Him and what He is doing?

It is time to stop hiding out in the church building and start getting out into a lost, dying and frustrated world, so that we might share with everyone that we can the ONE who can really make the difference.  We don’t need to conform to the culture that we live in and around, but we do need to get busy engaging it!

In what way have you served the community that you live in?  What kind of relationships have you built outside of the church?  What have you done lately that wasn’t for you, but for someone else?

If we will accept and live in the power of our relationship with Jesus and yield to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives – we will see God do some incredible and amazing things!  I am so looking forward to it!

WOW!  All I can say is WOW!  Northwooders came through again by hosting over 400 ladies for an evening with Janet Pascal!  Our Ladies Banquet Ministry Team did an outstanding job in planning, organizing and putting on a first class, top rate ministry event!  Our ladies did a beautiful job preparing beautiful and welcoming tables!  Our men prepared a delicious meal and served with with an amazing spirit.  So many people pitched in to help us have a magnificent evening of ministry impact!

It is amazing what we can do, when we come together to accomplish something great for God and His glory!  Janet did a super job in sharing a special word from the Lord and I am so looking forward to the harvest from the seeds that she planted!  Thanks JoJo and team for great leadership and thanks for everyone of you that helped to bless this community with a very special touch from the Lord!

I am really looking forward to preaching Sunday!  I am gong to be talking about “THE POWER OF STORMS!”  Defeat is not when we get knocked down, but when we refuse to get bck up!  Every one of us will face storms in this life!  The question is not will we face storms, but when will we face them and how will we face them?  I believe that a lot of people in our world today are living in the midst of continuing storms!  I also believe that there is a reason for the storms, a benefit from facing and dealing with our storms and a way to get out of the storms!

If you are facing a storm or if you know someone that is – I encourage you to be at Northwood this coming Sunday.  God has a very special Word that can change our lives!

“It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelist, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”  (Ephesians 4:11-12)

I love this Scripture, because it is a reminder to me of the calling that God has placed upon my life!  I did not choose to be a pastor – that was God’s choice!  He called me, gifted me and annointed me!  He has given me the task of shepherding His Church by preparing God’s people fo works of service so that the body may be built up, until we all reach “unity in the faith” and in the “knowledge of Jesus”.

My job is to help the church to grow in it’s relationship with Jesus.  I want to help you mature and grow in your walk and relationship with Jesus!  I want you to have and know all that Christ has for you!  If there is any way that I can help you in your journey with Christ – please feel free to call on me.  I am praying you and working hard to grow myself, so that I might help to grow you for God’s glory and everyone’s blessing!

It has been great for me and my family to get away to visit with some other ministries and take some time to enjoy some vacation from our normal everyday duties!  I have honestly done much better at this vacation thing than I thought I would.  I have not worked on any sermon stuff – and that is saying a lot for me, because almost everything I see, read or think almost always leads to a sermon.  I have missed preaching just a little bit, but really the break has been good.  I have not taken a serious break from preaching since I first started pastoring in 1992.

While I have done good at not doing the sermon thing.  I have not been quiet so disciplined in the area of being a pastor.  In fact, I have thought a lot about Northwood and all of the people that make Northwood so special.  The truth is, we just can’t help it!  Northwood is more than a church to me and my family – Northwood is a family to my family and Northwood is home!  While I have enjoyed some time to enjoy and learn in different environments, I am thankful for a home to head home to and looking forward to the day that we get back there.  Until then, I hope everyone knows how much we love them and just in case they don’t, I know that I will be sure to tell them when I get home!

There used to be a commercial from a bank that had a song that said:  “I’m different and don’t care who knows it, something about me ain’t the same.  I’m different and that’s how it goes, ain’t going to play any black sheep games!  Being different is not a bad thing, it is actually a good thing!  The thing that makes you different, is the thing that makes you – you!  The thing that makes you – you, is the thing that gives you the ability to be powerful and make a difference in this world!

We need to stop trying to fit in with the world and start fitting into who God created us to be!  We need to figure out what gifts God has given us and build our lives by using our gifts for God’s glory!  What is it that God has given you that makes you uniquely you?  Figure that out and use it and you will be amazed at just how special your life really is!  What do you think really matters – what kind of sheep you are, or the fact that you are a sheep?

Mistakes do not have to be a bad thing, in fact mistakes can be a good thing, if we are willing to learn from them.  I do not like to make mistakes!  I grew up believing that “if you want something done right – do it yourself!”  This is a very flawed way of thinking!  The fact is:  No matter how good or gifted we are, we can’t expect that we will do everything perfectly every time!  In fact if you are a human being – living on the planet earth – you are going to make mistakes.  Not only do we need to learn to accept our own mistakes, we must also be willing to accept the mistakes of others.  The problem comes when we keep making the same mistakes over and over agian!  Remember:  If we were perfect people living in a perfect world, we would not need grace!

So, get out there and take some of the chances that God is leading your to take!  Put your heart on the line and live like you’ve never lived before.  Let God use you to do the incredible and impossible and when you miss the boat and make a mistake, realize that God’s grace always has another boat on the way!  When you are making mistakes, you know that you are taking chances!  When you are taking chances, you are inviting grace to take full effect in your life and in the lives of others!  Take a chance, make a mistake, learn from it and grow forward for God’s glory and everyone’s blessing!

Every morning I get up early and go for a walk on the beach.  For the past several mornings, I have had an elderly African American man that has walked by me and every morning as he makes his way up and down the beach he greets everyone that he passes with a hearty and healthy “GOOD MORNING & GOD BLESS YOU!”  After we exchanged encouragement to each other and praise to God this morning, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said simply:  “Every moment of every day YOU decide to live POSITIVE or NEGATIVE!”  Every moment of every day, regardless of what is happening in my life, I get to make the choice of how I am going to respond!  I like to think that I am generally a pretty positive person, but I am many times swayed by the world that I live in and the sway often pulls me toward the negative!  I am going to do all that I can in the days a head, with the rest of my life to try and live POSITIVE!

I think the positive life comes when I truly trust in God with all of my heart and ignore my own understanding.  I need to acknowledge Him in all my ways and in everything that I do and know that He is making my paths straight!  (Proverbs 3:5-6)  I pray that God will help me to live this POSITIVE life, I ask that you would help to encourage me to live the POSITIVE life!  I believe that my POSITIVE life will make a difference for others!