True Vine Fellowship
 
As people prepare for the New Year, they often times use it as an opportunity to reflect on the year that just past and look forward with optimism to what lies ahead. Others don’t look with the same certainty. Perhaps you fall into one of these 2 categories and perhaps you don’t, but either way it is important to keep your eyes focused on the LORD. With Resolutions made and broken from times past, create a new list for this year.

I am reminded of a scripture in the Bible that says “Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”

New Years Eve ends at (mid) night. With the tick of a hand on the clock time moves forward as we pass from one year to the next. All that said, the old year ends at night and the morning of not only a New Day, but a New Year begins and joy can come into your life. With that tick 2011 became the past and 2012 became the future.

The worst thing a person can do is carry that past with all of its hurts, pains, and fears. Instead choose to look to the future. The book of Jeremiah says the “GOD has a plan for you that has a future and hope.”

You may feel down and out but GOD says you are up and in. Think on the good things of the LORD with what HE has blessed you with, not on what you don’t have.

Start the year out right

What is GOD speaking to you? What do you need to correct in your life?

Be blessed, Pastor D.

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Holiday Gifts 12/17/2011
 
As I sit here in my office contemplating the season we are in, I am reminded of Christmas times past. I truly believe that (at least for me) I learned the meaning of love and giving. Not necessarily because of the giving of presents because growing up there were some Christmas’s where gifts were a little hard to come by. I am talking about the joy it would bring to my heart even as a child to see the smiles of friends and family members who received their gifts with great expectancy. Don’t get me wrong, I would feel a little sad at the same time, when it seemed like we had nothing and others had so much; at times even angry wishing I had more. Yet at the end of the day I was over it and ready to enjoy the singing and hot chocolate.

As a child, I didn’t know anything about JESUS birth and the true reason for the season we celebrated. I knew the story of his birth but not the meaning. One day, which also happened to be one of the first times I went to a Christian church, I was taken to a Christmas service where we learn about the not just a baby in a manger but the reason this baby came.

The thing I kept thinking about was this baby JESUS was like me in the sense of Him not having much yet people were happy. I understood that! I understood how you can have so little and yet be so happy; what I did not understand was why. Jesus was born under extreme circumstances in humble surroundings and lived a simple life. Yet HE did something that I could never do. He died for all mankind!! His beginnings were a picture of HIS ending, humble, extreme, yet glorious.

I was in my mid teens when I feel like I finally got it, the message that is. Those times when I didn’t get what I wanted, as much as I wanted, or whatever the case was, all along I had the greatest gift of all waiting on me to accept HIM. It took a few more years until I finally did.

You have so many gifts that the LORD has given you. It does no good to focus on what we don’t have instead be thankful for what you do have. Breathe for this life and eternity for the next. GOD has blessed you with more than you know. HE has a plan for your life! Remember what Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first the kingdom of GOD and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Be blessed this holiday season, you already are!!

Pastor D. 

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Hello Friend,
I am new to blogging so please bear with me.
(This blog is an excerpt from a sermon I preached last month with the same name.)
How many of you have ever felt like you are at the end of your rope?

Psalm 61:2 -When David was at the end of his rope, down to his last gasp, feeling down & struggling to cope with life - He cried out to God for direction, the One He acknowledged as being ‘higher’ than himself, above all his disappointments & troubles. The God who is above all other names!! The God who is above depression, discouragement, doubt, fear & loneliness. Above sickness, disease & the powers of death!

God desires to lead you to that same towering rock of safety! That place of security, protection & shelter.

When you are overwhelmed it is easy to ‘…jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job.’ 
We’ve all experienced times of weakness where we doubted if God was even aware of our situation.

Holding on to our faith can be both a trial and chore at the same time. With all that comes against us, the path of least resistance is to loose focus and loose faith. 

But just as Peter reached out to JESUS with dear life as he was sinking in the water, so we do to our Saviour as well. JESUS will do the same to us reach back and keep us from drowning.

Always remember, adversity serves a purpose; it teaches us to cry out to GOD and stretches our faith. The more your faith stretches, the more it covers.  

 When we don’t understand what life brings our way, when we can’t answer the question ‘why’, God spurs us on to hold on to our faith…to keep our confidence & faith in Him…to trust & believe that God still on the throne!

Be blessed, Pastor D.

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