Let me just start by saying how much i do not appreciate the heat. I am a winter guy and i LOVE my snow. I wish i could move in with my aunt that it a nurse up in Nunavut. If i could, i think i would! I would LOVE for the earth to be in winter mode forever.
Same thing happens so many times in Christianity. People find them self in a season that they really like and complain when the season changes.
We must keep in mind that without season change a few things will happen:
- You will get too comfortable where you are.
- If there is no season change, nothing will grow.
- You will loose respect and greatfulness towards the season you are curently in if you stay there.
Remember when you are all sweaty and have sunburn to thank God for the season you are curently in but also thank him for the next season that is to come!
Wow, i feel like i owe you all an apologie for not blogging in soo long. Things have been crazy around here with Encounter, Events, Fundraisers, Events Planning, Etc… (especially wedding planning haha)
As most of you know, OCC is following the ONE PRAYER series along with Craig Groeschel @ Lifechurch.tv and currently 1872 other churches all across the world in order to become Jesus’ answer to His prayer in John 17:20-24.
This year’s theme for One Prayer is: God is…
We have already looked, together as a church, at the fact that God Is: Able as well as God Is: Moving. On Monday of this week, i was working at the bakery and i was just thinking and meditating on this word of God Is… As i was pondering on this fact, something came to mind that was quite shocking to me, yet very true. I starting to think about how God Is… (in one way) UNable. Let me explain.
Though God IS very able to DO anything, BE anything and BECOME anything we need Him to be, (up to a certain extent of course), in a sense, God is very UNable as well. Numbers 23:19 clearly states that God is not a man that He should lie as well as stating the fact that He is unable to break promises.
In Joshua 9 we clearly see that God cherishes convenants and that He is a God of covenants. God is UNable to break covenant.
All throughout Scriptures we see that God is UNable to be unfaithful.
Here are a few more – God Is Unable:
To Sin
To Be Where Sin Is
To Deceive
To Go Against Free Will
To Be Unjust
To Be Unfair
To Ignore His Children
To Hate His Children
To Break Any Commandments
To Make Mistakes
And that is just to name a few. Let me know your thoughts!
So tonight, i am starting this new message series entitled, “Effective Growth”. I am super excited about this because we are going to be hitting a few different areas in each of our lives in which growth is required.
Growth is required in our spiritual lives.
Growth is required in our social lives.
Growth is required in our relationships.
Growth is required in our professional lives.
Our personal lives are not the only thing that needs growth, we are also going to be look at
How to effectively grow our influence.
How to effectively grow as a ministry.
How to effectively grow as a small group or life group.
Hope you come pumped and ready to receive tonight. All of our messages are all downloadable, streamable and also posted on podcasts which can all be found at www.getagripministries.ca
I was talking to a friend of mine last last, and we got talking about the Old Testament for some odd reason. We were pointing out how the children of Israel were always:
Stumbling
Falling
Failing
Backstabbing God right to His face
Turning to idols
Building themselves some idols
Talking trash about their leaders
Talking trash about God
Rebelling
And the list goes on and on and on.
You know, if you look at all those thing, and that was just to name the very least, it really is no different then what the world is doing today. So many people are saying, “Oh my, the world is so going to hell”, and so many people are commenting about how bad our world has gotten. Take a closer look at the sins, the attitudes and actions that the Israelites dealt with, it is very simular to what we are dealling with today.
What makes it worst is that these people saw God’s hand at work.
They saw the Egyptian army get annihilated right before their eyes
They saw the red sea crack open and were able to walk on dry ground
They saw Moses whack a rock and water randomly came out of it
They were miraculously fed in the desert every day
and they STILL complained and rebelled.
It’s not like they never saw God at work, they did first hand, but they still chose to go their own way and God STILL forgave them. If God forgave them while they were still under law, He can certainly forgive you, that are under GRACE!
There is hope for you and I. No matter how bad we fall and fail, we can get back up, repent and run towards Him. He will always accept you the way you are!
I am finally Done reading this book and quite frankly, I am sad. … see? sad face. haha. Honestly this is one of the best books i’ve read since IT by Craig Groeschel.
Soul Cravings, in a nut shell, is an awesome book if you are searching for truth, if you are seeking for where or who to put your faith in or if you are simply trying to figure out why we are here on earth and would like to understand your purpose in life. Erwin Will take you on a journey that will definitely open your eyes to certain things that you have never thought about before. Even if you have been saved for a long time, this book will definitely open your eyes regarding more then just what our physical eyes can see.
This was one of those books i could barely put down, though i do not like to read, i couldn’t wait to get home and to start reading it again. Erwin will bring up subjects and talk about things that will make you think and ask yourself “What IS the true meaning of life, what AM I here for?” Some of you may think that I’m saying that in a way that it will make you doubt God, but “Au contraire” (this means, “quite the opposite” for you who don’t know french), it will in fact bring you closer to God and make you understand that there is more to life then what most of us think.
I loved how I was SO easily able to relate and to get captivated by his words and his approach towards Christianity and Jesus Christ. Erwin Definitly will take your brain and thoughts towards Religion, Christianity, God, Faith, Purpose, Dreams, Life and Destiny, he will shred them, shake them up a little bit and so beautifly put them back together as they should be. I give this book a big 9.5 because personally I think that He left me hanging a little bit in the end. I believe that there could of been more to it but other then that it was AWESOME and I 100% recommend everyone to read it!
I found this video on YouTube and thought it would be an awesome story to share. One thing i love about this video is that even though they are going through a super rough time, their faith toward God DOESN’T deminish. Enjoy!
Unfortunately due to a lack of interest, the conference will have to be postpone to a much later date. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. We do believe that God has a specific word for us, but it will have to be delivered in HIS timing. We will let you know the new dates of our conference as soon as we know! God Bless!
Well today i am going out to hang out fliers to our nearby school on their lunch times. I will be leaving the church at 11 am until 12:30 and again at 6pm until 7pm If any of you want to join me, just show up I hope to get a few people helping out to be able to share the task. The more people we have the more we can impact. Let’s invite everyone we know to think conference, we only have 37 people paid and we need at least a 100. If you have not paid yourself yet, PLEASE call Maxine at 905-725-5946 or email me to let me know you are planning to come. If you want to come in sometimes during this week to drop off your money, you are more then welcome to. our office hours are Tuesday – Friday 9am – 4pm. If it starts to rain, we might cancel the handing of the fliers but call Maxine to double check. If the rain is not too bad we will still go. Hope to see many of you here in a little while God Bless!
Our 2009 Generation Conference, entitled Testify, will be happening May 1-3 and it is approaching fast. We are so excited to see what God has in store this year for our generation. Pastor Mark Schilling and Pastor Mike Servello from Mount Zion Ministries, Utica New York are coming back to minister to us. The cost for this year’s conference will be $15/person in advance or $20/person at the door. Make sure to drop in to the welcome center on Sunday morning or Friday nights to register. You can also call Maxine at 905-725-5946 for reservations. God bless and hope to see you all there!
We had an AWESOME time this past Friday. The word, the worship and the ministry time was phenomenal. A Lot of people were blessed and a lot of people were moved and touched by the Spirit of God. I heard a lot of good things from a few people but please let me know YOUR thoughts regarding last night’s service! If you can also share a little something that God spoke to you about, that would be awesome. It doesn’t need to be something personal, in fact please refrain from sharing if it’s personal. That should stay between you God and maybe your life group leader! Can’t wait to hear from all of you.
Let me just start by saying how much i do not appreciate the heat. I am a winter guy and i LOVE my snow. I wish i could move in with my aunt that it a nurse up in Nunavut. If i could, i think i would! I would LOVE for the earth to be in winter mode forever.
… see? sad face. haha. Honestly this is one of the best books i’ve read since IT by Craig Groeschel.
