Love like Him (from 10/24/16)

Here’s the last of our “Best of 2016” posts. I hope you enjoyed the blog this year and hope that you will continue to use it as we prepare for worship each week. I use the tag line “We’ll see you on Sunday!” because I truly hope that I will see each and every one of you here for church on Sunday. It may be that you are too far from Aledo to join us here, but you are not too far from some church that preaches the Word of God…so go! And one of these Sundays perhaps I will see you here in Aledo…or perhaps even in the greatest eternal church service ever…in heaven!

We’ll see you on Sunday!

Yesterday we touched on the fact that God is seeking followers who will love like Jesus loved. We noticed in John chapter 13 that Jesus washed His disciples' feet, a task that was reserved for the lowest servant. Jesus even washed Judas Iscariot's feet...the man who He knew was going to betray Him later that night.

Now I touched on this a bit in my sermon, but I wanted to expound on this just a bit in this blog post. Namely, that Jesus' love didn't stop with just those who loved Him and treated Him with respect and dignity. He loved Judas, even to the point of serving him by washing his feet (John 13:1-28). He loved His captors even to the point of healing one who had been injured (Luke 22:49-51). He loved those who crucified Him even to the point of forgiving their sins (Luke 23:33).

So what does this mean for us? Simply this: showing love to our neighbors, families, even our enemies, doesn't stop...no matter what. We are to love the way Jesus loved. He showed love by laying down His life for His friends, yes, but He also laid down His life for His enemies as well. Jesus' death and His life was for all people. Men and women; Americans, Muslims, Mexicans, Canadians, Brits, and all other people groups of the earth; Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and all other skin colors; His life and death and were for ALL of them. So when we live our lives, when we love through our service, sacrifice and smile, we should do so for all people everywhere.

Love like Jesus...there is no greater way to show the world that you are His disciple!

We'll see you on Sunday!

A Meddlesome Post (from 8/30/16)

As we continue to share our “Best of 2016” posts, this one jumped out at me. Thought it was worth a second look. So enjoy (or don’t) and we will see you on Sunday!

Okay. I will admit it. I am about to take this whole "Taming the Tongue" thing and making it way too personal. But I feel I have to say something about this for the sake of all of my friends and family who are a part of the huge conglomerate that we call "The Internet."

The internet provides us a certain level of anonymity when it comes to the things we say. Through its wide reaching influence, people are able to share their opinions with anyone at the touch of a button. In 160 characters or less, people wind up getting themselves into so much trouble. We share information that should be left alone, and we leave things unsaid that should be shouted from the rooftops.

So what am I going to say about the internet, and more specifically about sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc., etc., etc.? Only this:

BE CAREFUL!!!!!!

The internet is a place that is able to be used to spread the Gospel to more places than previously thought. We can encourage brothers and sisters all around the globe with words that will uplift their spirits when they are down, point them to Christ when they are feeling vulnerable, and will give them hope when all hope seems lost.

But the internet is also a place where more relationships have been fractured, more damage to the Gospel has been done, and more sharp-tongued words have been spewed than I think we could ever imagine. So please be careful in what you say. To help you out, let me give you three simple tips that will keep you from posting something on the internet that could damage you, your relationships with others, or the Gospel of Jesus.

1) When you are sharing something from another site, read it carefully. Make sure that the title, or the content doesn't have something offensive in it. I can't tell you how many times brothers and sisters in Christ will post something humorous they found in their newsfeed on Facebook, only to see that the place where it came from had a vulgar word in its title. We need to be very careful, because when we post these things, we are agreeing with everything we post. So please, please, PLEASE be careful when you post.

2) Reread your post in many different tones to see if what you say could be taken the wrong way. If so, and you still feel it needs to be said, then make mention of what you intend your tone to be. This is especially important in the area of friendships. I have seen many a friendship die because someone read an email, a tweet, or a Facebook post with the wrong tone or inflection, making it say something else entirely from what the author wanted to get across. So be careful about how your words could be interpreted.

3) Reread your post to make sure a spelling error isn't causing your relationships or the Gospel any harm. For example, I saw a post from a Christian brother of mine that said, "God does want you live your life in fear! So go ahead an live the life God wants you to live." When I read it, I was shocked, and then realized that he forgot a word...the word "not" between "does" and "want." So I sent him a private message pointing out the issue...and he quickly changed it. I have reread my posts at times and have found misspellings that make my posts vulgar...lol. But a simple read through will help avoid this issue 90% of the time.

There are other things that I could encourage you to do before you post, but these are the top three. So take them to heart, and start using your posts, tweets, emails and videos to bring glory to God and strengthen your relationships!

I'm done meddling now. Back to your day!

And we'll see you on Sunday!

With Great Knowledge Comes Great Responsibility (from 7/8/16)

The following is a reprint of one of our first blog posts in this blog. This week will be full of reprints from the past year…think of it as our “Best of 2016” year in review. Enjoy them, and share them, and by all means, live them out. And we’ll see you on Sunday!

If you happen to be a nerd, like me, you'll at least recognize that the title of our blog post today comes from a movie released way back in 2002. The movie was titled, Spider-Man, and in this movie, a young Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider. In turn, his body begins to change and he is now able to do “whatever a spider can.” Peter’s change was also enhanced by great power and strength. He was able to jump, run, lift and do things with reflexes not many could. He had enormous power and not many knew about it.

One night, he witnessed a crime being committed, and he did nothing to stop it. As a result, the man he let go was the same man who shot and murdered his Uncle Ben, who was his guardian. When he finds Uncle Ben lying in the street bleeding to death, Ben gives Peter a word of wisdom that would then guide the rest of Peter’s life. He said, “Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.”

The same is true with God’s Word. In His Word there is great power, and knowledge, and wisdom. If we choose to listen, we find that the wisdom and power and knowledge give us strength. However, if we fail to obey, our lives become nothing more than a discordant noise in the symphony of life. Simply put, our outsides will not match what we say we believe on the inside…or what we know.

We are called to be active in our faith…in living out the Christian life. But if we refuse to obey, our lives become labeled as “hypocritical” or “not genuine”. None of us wants that label, so let’s do what needs to be done to make our lives a living replica of what Jesus has called us to be and to do!

Please feel free to leave a comment or question. We will respond to every one. And we hope to see you Sunday!

Living as a Bondservant (from 6/6/16)

The following is a reprint of one of our first blog posts in this blog. This week will be full of reprints from the past year…think of it as our “Best of 2016” year in review. Enjoy them, and share them, and by all means, live them out. And we’ll see you on Sunday!

No one is comfortable with the idea of becoming a slave...especially given the state of our culture. As a society, we have endured the tempestuous horrors of a Civil War over the very concept of slavery. But the fact remains that the Scriptures call us to a life of indentured servitude. As we looked at on Sunday (if you were with us), God allowed in His Law to Moses an opportunity for the servant who loved his master to be his slave for life. In his former life, this servant was forced to work because his master had purchased him at a price. In the law given in Exodus 21, it is clearly spelled out that the servant had the right to "stay on" with his master and serving him not because he had to, but because he wanted to.

Read Exodus 21:1-6 again, and then come back and I want to open your eyes to two words that are especially important to this idea.

The first word is LOVE. This servant decides to stay because of his love for his master, wife and children. He is staying with the idea that he doesn't want to go anywhere else. This servant may have come into the situation he was in because of a debt he owed the master, or perhaps he just needed to have a place to live and survive. But when his six years were up, he had the option to go or stay. When he stayed, it was out of love.

The second word is FREE. This servant is free to go. He owes the master nothing at this point because he served him for six years. He is free to go without owing the master a thing. This freedom coupled with his love then makes his decision to stay all the more compelling. He doesn't have to stay, but because he loves he makes the choice of his free will to stay.

When we see ourselves in this way, we are telling God, "I know that I am free, but I also know that I love you and my family, and I want to serve you for the rest of my life."

As we have made the challenge to see ourselves as servants of the Most High God, let us remember that this decision comes as a result of our own free will born out of a love for God that is deeper than anything else we could hope for.

We will see you on Sunday!!