With yesterday being such a beautiful day, I had every intention of getting out on our new church property at Southridge. Spring days like the one we experienced yesterday are great days to roam around the land and pray. Two years ago, we were beginning to look at the possibility of this land as the place for us to relocate our facilities. Last spring, we were in the process of buying it. Each year, I have thoroughly enjoyed walking around the land and observing the creative beauty of it while talking with God.
From the very start of the day yesterday, I planned to take an hour or so to go out to the property and pray, but it didn't work out. I, like most people who were working yesterday, did not get out of the office to bask in the sunny glow of such a gorgeous spring day. The tyranny of the urgent robbed me of the opportunity. Such is life! But, I am disappointed I didn't get there. God has used those times of fellowship with Him as sweet and stirring moments in my life personally and professionally.
Next time it is nice out, I am there. Let me suggest that you take the time to get out and pray on the land in the coming days. If you are not sure where it is or how to best access it, call the church and ask the receptionist for help.
Please go out to the land and pray. Prayer is what will provide us the right plans for the use of the land. Prayer is the means by which God will provide the finances for our relocation. Prayer is what will most dramatically impact the timing of our move.
Prayer is what will ultimately get us all out there!
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
God is the Author of Change
Today is such a beautiful day in Charleston. Spring has sprung! Yes!
By the latter part of August, I will probably be rejoicing that the warm sunny weather is giving way to the cool refreshing air of the fall, but today I am basking in the sun of late March. I am so glad our seasons change. God has provided us a tremendous blessing in the seasonal changes that we experience. Each new season communicates a fresh start—none more so than the spring.
God is the author of change. He has built it into His creation. Seasons change. A caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Clouds give way to sunshine after a storm. The rain washes away the dust that has built up over time.
God is the author of change. He has provided it through His salvation. A person whose sin once condemned him to eternal judgment can live forever with God because of God’s love gift of His Son. The guilt is removed by God’s life changing grace. The soul is set free due to the forgiveness of God. The person who has experienced all of this change because of faith in Christ now begins to see the new life of Christ change him. He experiences what Christ called the abundant life. As he surrenders to God’s plan and purpose for his life, God changes his attitudes, outlook, and behaviors.
As today’s awesome change in weather has captivated my thinking and reminded me of the author of change, I am reminded that He expects me to yield, trust, and obey so that He can change me. Don’t just rejoice in how God is changing the weather; let Him bring you joy as He changes you today!
By the latter part of August, I will probably be rejoicing that the warm sunny weather is giving way to the cool refreshing air of the fall, but today I am basking in the sun of late March. I am so glad our seasons change. God has provided us a tremendous blessing in the seasonal changes that we experience. Each new season communicates a fresh start—none more so than the spring.
God is the author of change. He has built it into His creation. Seasons change. A caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Clouds give way to sunshine after a storm. The rain washes away the dust that has built up over time.
God is the author of change. He has provided it through His salvation. A person whose sin once condemned him to eternal judgment can live forever with God because of God’s love gift of His Son. The guilt is removed by God’s life changing grace. The soul is set free due to the forgiveness of God. The person who has experienced all of this change because of faith in Christ now begins to see the new life of Christ change him. He experiences what Christ called the abundant life. As he surrenders to God’s plan and purpose for his life, God changes his attitudes, outlook, and behaviors.
As today’s awesome change in weather has captivated my thinking and reminded me of the author of change, I am reminded that He expects me to yield, trust, and obey so that He can change me. Don’t just rejoice in how God is changing the weather; let Him bring you joy as He changes you today!
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Yesterday's Solution, Today's Problem
While reading an article in a business journal last night, a statement jumped off the page and grabbed my attention: “Yesterday’s solutions are today’s problems.” How very true that statement is! The building located on Oakhurst Drive where the church known as Bible Center meets was once a great solution to the problem of the church’s continued growth.
Those who were here in the mid-seventies during the relocation from the downtown site to our current location have shared with me what a blessing it was for the congregation to move into this wonderful facility. This building was a solution to the space problem Bible Center Church faced back then. This site with all of its various expansions, additions, and enhancements has served as a wonderful tool of ministry to the glory of God for almost three decades.
The great solution has become a huge problem. God has continued to bless Bible Center with growth as a result of the church staying focused on the life-changing Good News of Jesus Christ. The pattern this church has faced over the years is a difficult one, but a good one: outgrowing various sites. Over the sixty plus years of ministry, this group of believers has moved from meeting in homes, to gathering in the shoe department of a downtown department store, to renting a store front, to buying a large home on the old Broad Street, to building a place to meet on the Kanawha boulevard, and finally to relocating to its current site on Corridor G. As the church has grown spiritually and numerically over the years, at each stage of that amazing growth the leadership has recognized that the past solution has become a current problem. We are now in that same situation again.
This wonderful site has become a hindrance and a hurdle to sharing Christ with the lost and teaching the relevant message of God’s Word for Christian living today. Praise the Lord He has opened a door for us in the new property at Southridge. He has provided us a 96 acre solution for the next phase of this church family’s ministry in the Kanawha Valley. We believe this is His solution for many, many decades to come.
Pray today that God would move us there more quickly than we would anticipate. Pray that God would bless some of our families financially in surprising ways and that He would burden them to give graciously and generously so that we might move into His new solution for us as we seek to preach Christ free from site restrictions! Pray that God would once again provide for us as we seek to remain faithful to Him and His Word.
Those who were here in the mid-seventies during the relocation from the downtown site to our current location have shared with me what a blessing it was for the congregation to move into this wonderful facility. This building was a solution to the space problem Bible Center Church faced back then. This site with all of its various expansions, additions, and enhancements has served as a wonderful tool of ministry to the glory of God for almost three decades.
The great solution has become a huge problem. God has continued to bless Bible Center with growth as a result of the church staying focused on the life-changing Good News of Jesus Christ. The pattern this church has faced over the years is a difficult one, but a good one: outgrowing various sites. Over the sixty plus years of ministry, this group of believers has moved from meeting in homes, to gathering in the shoe department of a downtown department store, to renting a store front, to buying a large home on the old Broad Street, to building a place to meet on the Kanawha boulevard, and finally to relocating to its current site on Corridor G. As the church has grown spiritually and numerically over the years, at each stage of that amazing growth the leadership has recognized that the past solution has become a current problem. We are now in that same situation again.
This wonderful site has become a hindrance and a hurdle to sharing Christ with the lost and teaching the relevant message of God’s Word for Christian living today. Praise the Lord He has opened a door for us in the new property at Southridge. He has provided us a 96 acre solution for the next phase of this church family’s ministry in the Kanawha Valley. We believe this is His solution for many, many decades to come.
Pray today that God would move us there more quickly than we would anticipate. Pray that God would bless some of our families financially in surprising ways and that He would burden them to give graciously and generously so that we might move into His new solution for us as we seek to preach Christ free from site restrictions! Pray that God would once again provide for us as we seek to remain faithful to Him and His Word.
Monday, March 28, 2005
To God Be The Glory!
Yesterday was a great day of worship here at Bible Center Church. Easter is such an incredible day to exalt who our Savior is and to celebrate what He has done for us in His death, burial, and resurrection. Through the Scripture reading, music, fellowship, and preaching, each of the morning services did lift up our risen Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. As a pastor, it is my favorite preaching day of the year. My theory is that if you can’t preach a biblically based, passionate message on Easter Sunday you might as well quit preaching.
God gave us a tremendous opportunity to share the hope of Christ’s resurrection with many guests yesterday. Many of our church family members introduced me to friends or loved ones with whom they have been sharing the gospel. It was exciting to meet folks that we have been praying would come to Christ. I have already received a couple of emails from individuals telling me that the guest they had with them yesterday has been asking probing questions about the message of hope they heard in our worship services. Praise the Lord! Let us continue to pray that the Holy Spirit will work in hearts, and that individuals who were with us yesterday will yet come to Christ as Savior.
One of our goals yesterday was to make all of the logistics of the morning (parking, nurseries, seating, etc.) run so smoothly that nothing would become a distraction from the message of the morning. I thank God for using so many people to accomplish this—from nursery workers and parking lot attendants to those who rearranged their morning schedule to worship with us at eight or who parked at one of the offsite parking lots and shuttled over to the church. We had over 475 people at the 8:00 service and we parked more than 100 cars off-site during the peak of our morning. Thanks to all of you who helped facilitate the logistics and to all of you who adjusted your Sunday morning routine. God used us, as we worked together as a body of believers, to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Overall, compared to last year’s number of 1,914 people in attendance in all three morning services, we had 2,075 people in all three services. Praise the Lord! What a joy and a privilege it is for me as God’s messenger to communicate the message of hope found in Jesus Christ to so many people. I am truly humbled that God can use us as a church in this way, and I am even more deeply humbled that He chooses in His sovereignty and grace to use me. To God be the glory!
God gave us a tremendous opportunity to share the hope of Christ’s resurrection with many guests yesterday. Many of our church family members introduced me to friends or loved ones with whom they have been sharing the gospel. It was exciting to meet folks that we have been praying would come to Christ. I have already received a couple of emails from individuals telling me that the guest they had with them yesterday has been asking probing questions about the message of hope they heard in our worship services. Praise the Lord! Let us continue to pray that the Holy Spirit will work in hearts, and that individuals who were with us yesterday will yet come to Christ as Savior.
One of our goals yesterday was to make all of the logistics of the morning (parking, nurseries, seating, etc.) run so smoothly that nothing would become a distraction from the message of the morning. I thank God for using so many people to accomplish this—from nursery workers and parking lot attendants to those who rearranged their morning schedule to worship with us at eight or who parked at one of the offsite parking lots and shuttled over to the church. We had over 475 people at the 8:00 service and we parked more than 100 cars off-site during the peak of our morning. Thanks to all of you who helped facilitate the logistics and to all of you who adjusted your Sunday morning routine. God used us, as we worked together as a body of believers, to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Overall, compared to last year’s number of 1,914 people in attendance in all three morning services, we had 2,075 people in all three services. Praise the Lord! What a joy and a privilege it is for me as God’s messenger to communicate the message of hope found in Jesus Christ to so many people. I am truly humbled that God can use us as a church in this way, and I am even more deeply humbled that He chooses in His sovereignty and grace to use me. To God be the glory!
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