Category: The Biggest Loser Series

In the Old Testament, the number seven was considered a very special  number. Every seventh day was to be sacred to God–a Sabbath Day. Every seventh year was to be a “Sabbath Year” —a sabbatical year—in which the land was to rest. It was an expression of God’s concern for His creation and a means of teaching God’s people to trust Him for their needs (as opposed to them trusting only their work). Then, after seven times seven years came a really big deal—a particular year called Jubilee.

In Leviticus, God says: “Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan” (Leviticus 25:8-10).

Come and see  during our Journey in the Word, what this has to do with our understanding and experience of how God changes our lives. You will be surprised!

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We continue our Biggest Loser series – a series started a few weeks ago by Pastor Will.  The whole idea for this series is based on the TV show of the same name.   The premise is that by disciplining yourself to do the right things and eating the right foods, you will lose the most weight and in doing so, become the biggest winner.

Oftentimes, doing the right things doesn’t feel good.  You are ridiculed, you are faced with all kinds of external and internal pressure to give in to your natural desires to just quit, but by being disciplined, you win.

That is exactly the same way with our Christian life.  There are some spiritual disciplines, that if you follow, even though your body yearns against it, you will become the biggest winner.    In previous weeks, we covered the discipline of prayer and the discipline of reading the Word.  Today, we will be talking about the discipline of service.  As you go through our time together today, our desire is that you get to know Jesus personally and that you discover the joys of service.

God Bless You,

Your Pastors

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I’ve been married 20 years. During that time, my wife and I have experienced periods of extreme busyness that tended to cut short our times of real togetherness. During such seasons, she’s consistently pointed out to me that “the distanced life” is not what she signed up for. When we “dated” we spent serious time together. Once I picked her up for an evening, our time was our time – nothing else interfered. We ate together, talked together, laughed together, dreamt together, we were together – period. Then once we were married, we found that we increasingly had to schedule times to talk about serious issues. Ok – let’s look at the schedule – when can we sit down and talk? Sound familiar to anyone?

Perhaps at some point you have felt like your prayer life is a similar routine. Prayer somehow has become something that you have to schedule. Where can I fit in? Can I fit it in this week? I’ve gone too long without fitting it in. I’ve been so busy – I need to sit down and talk with the Lord!

That routine is not God’s intention for you. He didn’t adopt you into a life of “Check in with me occasionally so we can catch up with one another.” As sure as the sun burns bright, God intends for you to know what it means to live in His presence – walking through every day with Him, bringing every thought, concern and circumstance to Him and then listening for His response (or His silence).

Perhaps a real key in learning how to do this is found in learning how to live consciously in His presence every moment of every day. As we take our Journey in the Word today, we’ll be looking at prayer less as a “conversation event” and more as a lifestyle of continually living in God’s loving presence and care. What else can I say – in His presence is just the place to be – it gets sweeter every day.

Hoping and praying that we all have good ears to hear His voice,

Will

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Did you know that many of our best words like “new, adventure, surprise; unique individual, person, vocation, time, history, future, freedom, progress, spirit, faith, hope, and justice” have come through Jewish culture (actually, the concepts behind the words)? And did you know that this has a significant impact on the life that you are living today?
How so? Listen and think through today’s sermon to find out.
Pursuing understanding with you,

Will

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