It was first Sunday of the month and it was raining hard, the church service started very early. There were only few people inside the church maybe because of the heavy rain, people were trap on their home. I was a bit soak in rain despite of having an umbrella.

Pastor E’s scriptural topic was continuation and the last part about being a good disciple of Christ “The Confidence in Discipleship” based of scriptural verse John 15: 7-11. According to the bible to be a Gods disciple we should do three things – forget about our self, bring the cross and follow Him.

On the scriptural verses 7-8 we are told to be confident in our position, we should abide God and His words and when we do it God is glorified. Secondly, on verses 9-10 there is a provision, God’s love us and He challenge us to remain in His love, while on verse 11 we have the confidence in our position in life since God equipped us with many talents and abilities, along the way God provided for us even though we challenged Him by doing nothing, for not growing as a Christian.

[ Tagged In ] A Blessed Sunday, Church, Church Service, Sunday Service

It’s the last Sunday of the month and Pastor E’s topic on his preaching today was from the book of Luke 14: 25-33 with a a topic of “The Cost of Discipleship”. Blessings are free and costly and there is very little blessings require in serving the Lord conveniently, Pastor E asked the congregation that considering God’s investment in us, what God have received from us?

Pastor E also gave some points on the cost of discipleship like the criteria, God says on verse 26 to love Him more than we love our parents, brother and sisters and whoever do not so cannot be his disciple then on verse 27  it was said that in following Jesus there will be a cross to carry, it means responsibility and on verse 28 we have to sit down and think if we can continue serving God given the responsibilities and cost.

Today, is Father’s Day Sunday. Instead of Pastor E preaching it was his wife who delivered God’s message, the scripture reading was from the book of 1 Thessalonians 2:7-12 with a topic “A Portrait of Fatherhood.

[Photo courtesy of fathers-days.net]

Pastor E’s wife shared the traits of a father, according to her a father is able to express genuine love, he has transparent life where he isn’t ashamed to cry in front of others, he has unselfish diligence, genuine spirituality and positive influence in his child’s life.

There was some testimony from other members for their father, they were called to share something in front of the congregation.

Hospital was our second home for a few days already, my father and I go home in the morning to collect water, do the laundry, cooked food and do other household chores and then we returned during lunch and went home again in the afternoon and went back to the hospital at late afternoon. It was been our routine for several days, it was hard to sleep during the night because we have to monitor my mother’s urine every hour, by draining her catheter and measuring it. I sleep a bit at night and do the task during early morning but I can’t sleep well at all because I was worrying with my mother’s condition.

Anyway, I am not planning to attend church service today but my sister texted that if I want to go to church I just have to make sure that everything is right at home, so I immediately searched for my jeans and went to church with a cloudy mind, lack of sleep and non-stop worrying.

[Image source: mbchiawassee.org]

This Sunday is my father’s birthday and it was exchanged pulpit Sunday which mean different Pastor will do the preaching, the preacher was a woman pastor (Pastor E.F) from sister church, her topic for the day was about “Service That Pleasing the Lord” based on scripture reading Matthew 25: 14-31.

What kind of service pleasing the Lord? According to Pastor E.F, productive service pleases the Lord, a service that is effective and fruitful, God gave us talents and ability for us  to flourish, He expected us to level up. Secondly, passionate service pleases the Lord, it is a service that is burning, committed, eager, excited, enthusiastic, hot and emotional in short it is a service that is from the heart. We should work with love to the Lord, our motivation should be love to glorify God. Thirdly, a faithful service pleases the Lord, it should be close, consistent, devoted, loyal and trustworthy. A faithful servant never retired, he served faithfully as long as he is alive. According to Pastor E.F a good servant acknowledge God as the owner and him as a steward and faithfulness is keeping promises.

Today, is the first Sunday of the month so the service started 7 o’clock in the morning. Pastor E topics is about the “The Call to Discipleship” based on Matthew 4:19 when Jesus invited Peter and Andrew to follow him to be fisher’s of men.

[Photo courtesy of relationaldiscipleship.wordpress.com]

Pastor E encourages the congregation to strengthen their faith and live like Jesus wanted His children to be, to follow Him and live on His words. He also discuss about Jesus invitation to Peter and Andrew,  he said it was not only for them but for everyone. Peter and Andrew followed Jesus without hesitation, they trust and became obedient.

[ Tagged In ] A Blessed Sunday, Church, Church Service, Sunday Service

On Friday the church held a family camp at Acacia Village and it was attended by  some church members, I think only few had attended since it rained earlier before the agreed meet up time. This Sunday Pastor E focused about the home and the family, he said that God began human existence with a marriage and a family. The first community that God established was a family and a home. The scriptural reading was found at Joshua 24: 11-15 and 2 Samuel 6: 9-11.

According to the Pastor E’s before the Israelites have a formal place of worship, the place of worship was the home, and all worship was directed and lead by the head of the home, the husband and father – Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Today, we have replaced the home with the church. For many Christians and their families all spirituality is exercised IN church, all prayer is IN church, all teaching is IN church – and not in the home.  We depend everything in the church and we forgot the spiritual practice at home.

[Photo courtesy of heritagekept.com]

Pastor E gave three ways on how do we experience the genuine divine blessing in our home and these are:

1. Choose to make your Home His Home –  Joshua 24:11-15, We have to choose to live according to God’s design for us in our homes & families.
2. Welcome His presence to your home – 2 Samuel 6:9-11, Pastor E says that every family has a box in their home, that box has the power to shape values of young children and that box was called television unlike the box at the center of Obed-Edom’s house, which contains Aaaron cane, Moses tablets and a jar, this box brought blessings.
3. Build an ark of salvation in your home – Hebrews 11:7, Pastor E talks about Noah and his family.

To begin and initiate God’s into  our home, Pastor E shared 5 E’s –

• EXALT God in your home
• EXAMPLE Christlikeness in your home
• ENCOURAGE Faithfulness in your home
• EDUCATE Your children in God’s ways in your home
• ESTABLISH Godly values in your home

When God’s presence is welcomed and encouraged a home is truly blessed!

On the previous Sunday the church celebrated Mother’s Sunday and today Pastor E’s preaching was about Jochebed, wife of Amram and the mother of Aaron, Miriam and Moses. The scriptural verse was from Exodus 2: 1-10, Pastor E talks about Jochebed’s selfless love for her children.

[Image source: huntercastle.com]

Anyway, Pastor E continue his preaching about things to see in Jochebed’s life which are enumerated in four C’s: The first one was her credentials, she was born to the Levites in Egypt and wife of Amran. Jochebed’s credential was her deep relationship with the Lord. She and her husband were evidently very dedicated and religious people. They were willing to defy the order of Pharaoh and keep the commandments of God. Secondly, courage, she was very courageous woman this could be seen in  Verse 2 where Jochebed refused to give in to a godless system that would have cost her the life of her son. Thirdly, Jochebed has confidence to resist the world and was strong woman motivated by a strong faith for God’s will and the last C is charity, she has a wonderful way on how she gave herself to her kids.

Have you ever had to give up and let go of someone or something very precious to you?

When you let go, when you released that person or that thing, did you feel like part of you was breaking; now there was some new emptiness in your life, isn’t it? As what we can read in the bible, Jochebed  give away her 3-month-old baby, not knowing what would happen to him, she placed baby Moses in a papyrus basket and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile…

Last Sunday was Mother’s day but it was just this Sunday that the church celebrated Mother’s day, yes it was a week late. Within the service, three young people shared testimonies about their mother’s, their love and sacrifices for them. The church gave token of appreciation for all mothers in the church, they were given a hand fan which is useful this summer season. Pastor E’s scriptural topic is about honoring mothers, treating them with admiration and respect and the scriptural verse was from Ephesians 6: 1-2.

[Photo courtesy of beforeitsnews.com]

Pastor E quote from the bible that mothers are like precious gems and rare stones (Ephesians 6:2). We can honor our mothers by recognizing her work, giving her respect (Proverbs 20:20), valuing them as our mother and considering them highly and spend time with them.

My mother wasn’t perfect like everyone else, we always disagree with each other when we have different views and opinions about things but when something went wrong around me I know that there’s only one person I can cry and talk too and that’s her.

This Sunday, Pastor E’s scriptural topic was about Faithful Christian Service based from scriptural verses Matthew 25:21, 1 Corinthians 4: 12 and Galatians 5: 22-23. Pastor E told the congregation that it is our duty to serve God but we served God in a voluntarily phases, in short we see ourselves as volunteers.

God put us in our particular place to be faithful and with a purpose, these purpose can be found in the following bible verses and what God encourages us to be:

[Photo courtesy of tnvalleytalks.hoop.la]

1. Hebrews 10: 25 – God wish each of us to be faithful in our attendance in church
2. 2 Timothy 2: 15 – Be faithful in reading the bible
3. 1 Thessalonians 5: 17 –  Be faithful in praying without ceasing
4. 2 Timothy 2: 19- 22 – Be faithful in our moral lives
5. James 2: 14-18 – Be faithful in serving others

Pastor E elaborates more and shared a story how King Henry III became an obedient King. He finishes his preach asking everyone a question “Will God find us faithful?”

It was first Sunday of the month and as usual the church service started early, during this day there was no Sunday school for all levels. Pastor E scriptural topic is about “Becoming People of the Towel” which literally means becoming servant of God. The scriptural verse was from John 13: 1-5 and John 13: 12-17

Pastor E tells about the story of Epaphroditus, a servant who risk and  gamble his life to serve Paul, he gambled everything for Jesus Christ so that the man of God would be served.

[Photo courtesy of journeychurchgillette.com]

On the book of John chapter 13, on the eve of His death, Jesus assumes the place of a slave and serves His disciples. While they were eating the Passover, Jesus gets up from the table and dons a towel. He poured a basin of water, and He began to wash the disciple’s feet.  He took the place of a slave before His men when Jesus did this. He took the place of the lowest kind of slaves, who were called “the people of the towel”. They were called this because it was their job to wash the feet of those who were superior to them.

Pastor E says Jesus did this to call His disciples to become people of the towel as well. He wants every person who follows Him to be a servant. He wants us to be a people of the towel. If we are to achieve that goal in our lives, we must develop a heart for others and we must learn from Jesus through His Labor, Lordship and Love.