God is Able

Summer is over and hopefully I’ll get back on track with writing the blog. My intention here is to give “my take” on the sermon that, Matt Miller, our Lead Pastor presents every Sunday morning. The last month or so he has been preaching out of the book of Daniel. I love the story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den and about the fiery furnace that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into for refusing to bow down to the image of gold. If you’ve never read these stories, check out the book of Daniel!

Any way, back to this Sunday’s sermon…Somehow, I had missed the message that pride leads to other sins. That’s what I love about Matt’s sermons. He challenges us to look at scripture with a new perspective! Here are some of the main points from this sermon: 1) We lose empathy when we are prideful. We tend to care more about ourselves than others and sometimes take credit for being the “creator” of something when it was really a gift from God. When we think of our position in life as something we created, “look what I did”, we lose sight of the fact that everything we are and everything we have is because God has allowed it. 2) Life for us becomes one big competition. We try to one-up our neighbor.

Matt’s suggestion: Stop looking inward at yourself and outward at others, and start looking upward to God. Begin to build a relationship with him by reading His word, meaningful prayer time, and growing in your faith by sharing with others. Get involved in a church. It doesn’t have to be our church (although we certainly hope it is), after all, we are worshiping God, not the pastor or any other person in the church. But find a church that you’re comfortable with that will feed you with the word of God and challenge you to step out of your comfort zone and serve in a way you have never served before! You’ll be glad you did.

If you don’t have a church, we welcome you to visit us. Check us out at http://www.milanchurch.com!

 

Acts 17:16-42 : My Take

This past Sunday’s sermon was about Paul preaching to those in Athens. He was angry about the idols that he found people to be worshipping there. Can we compare this to our society today? Sure we can! We have many idols that we worship. Maybe not in the normal sense, but think about it. We talk about the things that we love the most, don’t we? When you talk to others, how often do you talk about Jesus, the one who died for us to save us from eternal damnation? We talk instead about the sports teams that we follow and can get all fired up about, or about last night’s episode of “American Idol”, even the most recent movie star or hobby. There are many trivial things that take up our time and clutter our lives.

I’m not saying I’m perfect. Don’t tell my husband I said this, but I tend to spend too much time on the computer. That could be time that would be better spent studying my Bible or talking face to face with someone about the Good News. We do need to be more like Paul was and get out of our Christian bubbles more often! How can we share with non-Christians if we don’t get out there and rub elbows with them and find out what makes them tick. We have things in common that God can bring out so that we are able to connect with them. God will open doors if we give him the chance, we just have to recognize that and take advantage of the opportunities he provides!

Many are confused about who God is. They may worship something-an unknown god-that they don’t know what it is. We need to understand and challenge prevailing philosophies of today that may oppose the Good News. There is a void inside of us that only God can fill and many people are trying to fill it with drugs, sex, or gossip. People must understand that God gives life and breath. We all came from Adam, whom God created. We are all children of God, created in his image.

Yes, idols come in many forms and we battle them all the time. Realize what the idols are in your daily lives and realize that they will let you down. They can’t help you, but God can! We need to know God, repent of our sins, and know that through the resurrection, our God is THE LIVING GOD!

Your challenge this week: What has God dropped in your lap to use to share the good news? Find a way to use it and tell someone about our savior, Jesus Christ!