wedding

Did another wedding at The Bridge today.  I love being a part of new beginnings - whether a new spiritual beginning or a marital beginning or kids.  It is a real privilege to be a part of such a significant event in peoples lives!  This couple chose to have their initials tattooed on each others ring finger as a symbol of their lifetime commitment.  I like that level of commitment!  Praying for them as they begin this new life together in a tough economy, tough circumstances (job and home) and a society that says honoring commitments is not as important as "feeling" good.  As long as they keep trusting God in this relationship they will peace, joy and love!

Our God is bigger

We sing Our God is Greater at The Bridge often. Love that song because it reminds me that God is always bigger and more capable than I believe. When I am confident He can do this much He can really do so much more. When I believe He loves me or others that much He really loves so much more. When I think He is calling me to this level of service He really is empowering me to do so much more! My God is bigger than anything that can come my way! This year I am trying to chase after God sized plans and dream - although I know I will fall short I would rather fall short of reaching the peak of Mt Everest than falling short of reaching the top of the local hill! What is your God sized dream?

Had a great trip to NC for an assessment center for church planters. My wife and I went through one before we launched The Bridge. This trip was to take our first potential church planters down to see if they were right for church planting. The whole experience was great - the first time we were at one we were the assessed and learned a lot about ourselves. This time I was their to help with assessing and again learned a lot about myself. It is a very thorough process! I am excited about the future of church planting as I see the people coming through looking at getting into planting. Our candidates got a recommend for planting with some conditions to be met. They are now in training. Very excited about the next church we are starting!

Doing a Relationship series now - looked at what relationships are and why we need them to start with. It was interesting researching this and taking it all the way back to the beginning. Realized in this process that we were designed as relational creatures, in the image of God, because God is a relational being. The Trinity is a revelation of God as a relational being, complete in all ways. The relationship that is described as a Father, Son and Spirit reveals a 3 person God that is eternally in relationship with Himself and is not in need of any other being for relationship. Some have said that God created man because He needed someone else to love, but this thought process is describing a deficient God. The Trinity is just one more revelation of a God that is complete unto Himself with no other needs yet still created man out of love, not need.

Anyway...I gained a better understanding of why relationships are so important and compelling for all of us. The need for relationships is designed into us and to meet that need we will often accept unhealthy relationships rather than no relationships. Any relationship in the human realm has to be between two people - a two part relationship. Looking at our model for healthy relationships we see a 3 part relationship, the Trinity. To bring health to our human relationships we need the 3rd part and that is inviting our Creator into the relationship. With God in our relationships we will start to find health and joy.

I could go on, but those are my thoughts on this for today.

We are up to 3 services on Sundays now - 11 am, 4 pm and 6 pm. Developing new bands for worship, training workers for all areas, finding and growing new leaders and planning our next church launch. God is bigger has been our motto recently - many difficulties, but God overcomes them all! Excited about all the growth - growth in the number of people attending, spiritual growth and leadership growth!

Been a very busy summer - lot of good stuff accomplished and plenty of troubles to wade through. God is good! The Bridge has been steadily growing and impacting lives in positive ways. New leaders are growing. Lives are being healed. Families reunited. New families begun. Marriages and funerals. The Word is going out and connecting people to their Creator. Finances are starting to get fixed. Chains of bondage are being broken. Plans for the next church launch are in process. People in the community are being loved. God's hand is being revealed. It has been a very busy summer!

Salvation according to John MacArthur

I have been reading stuff by John MacArthur for a couple years now and I find it interesting that he is so condemning of people like Rick Warren and spends so much time telling everyone how to properly evangelize yet he completely disregards Jesus method of evangelism. He condemns Rick Warren for not mentioning repentance in the prayer for salvation - he only mentioned believe and receive, but left out repentance. John 1, Acts 10 and 1Timothy 1 are just a few of the many scriptures that teach the concept of believe and receive with no reference to repentance. On the cross Jesus told the criminal that today he would be in heaven with Him with no reference to repentance or, the much touted by John MacArthur, fear of God and crushing weight of sin. I guess according to John MacArthur Jesus did not tell people the correct way of salvation....