​Ephesians 4:2-6 states, Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
 
Hebrews 11:1 gives us the biblical definition of what faith is: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

This past Sunday we talked about being a Community of One Faith and what that looks like for us as a church.  We need to not only be faithful to who we are, but faith-filled in our daily living, prayer life and expectation of what God can do through us.

Now I know that exhaustion and fear can show up at the most unexpected times in your journey of faith; but God is always faithful, and waiting for Him will never disappoint you.  When faced with challenges that don’t make sense, you can remain confident of God’s greater purpose.  Fear can be paralyzing and sometimes you’ll need to engage your faith to take action or to wait.

Be encouraged, because the details of your life don’t escape the all-knowing, all-powerful. and ever-present God of the universe.  You can embrace opportunities for growth in every situation, knowing that His timing is perfect and He’ll open the right doors at the right time.  Strengthen your faith and trust God, knowing that He’ll provide divine connections to accomplish His plan and purpose in and through you.
I believe God has trusted our church with a mission to share His HOPE with others.  My prayer is that we as a church will be faith-filled, and faithful to His mission and take some risks in order to share with others who Jesus is and the hope that He can bring to their lives. 
 
We cannot do this alone, we must do it together and that makes us a community of hope.

Pastor Dave

The value of something is only worth the price we put on it ourselves.  For example, my Silver King Flair Trumpet, that I haven’t played in years, has a value of $1200.  However, to me, it cost me a lot of time, early morning chores, fighting with an insubordinate steer that I wanted to show in the county fair for 4-H and some blood and sweat.  When that thing sold at the 4-H auction, it sold for a whole lot more than I valued it, but the result helped me purchase my Silver King Flair trumpet.
Josiah wanted to learn to play the trumpet, but I wasn’t going to let him “try” to learn on my instrument.  Instead, we rented a much less valued horn for him to practice on, only to find out that at that time he didn’t have the discipline to put the time and effort in to learn how to play.  My Silver King Flair is in a protected case, and the case is a great dust collector.  The contents of that case is only as valuable as I see it to be.  To anyone else, it’s just another horn.
As a church, God has called us to be actively involved in the lives of people here in the Brainerd Lakes Area as well as the Park Raids area, and really, around the world.  What value do we really put on those people?
For those who are regular attenders of our churches, we tend to place a higher value.  We tend to work a bit harder at meeting their needs and taking care of them.  We do that because we see each other as family.
But we are also called to care for the needs of those around us.  To “Love our neighbor as ourselves.”  Jesus set a great example of this for us, and just one of the many glimpses that we get of Him doing that is found in Matthew 4:23.
"And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people."
When most people had an encounter with Jesus, they went away feeling valued.  Now, I don’t think the c did much of the time, but if anyone should have known better, it was them, and Jesus confronted them on it.
But look at the sinners and tax collectors, the women at the well, the women caught in adultery that the Pharisees wanted to stone, or the prostitute that Jesus helped lead out of that lifestyle. 
Think about this, when people think about you, do they say to themselves, "My life is better because of that person"?  Their response probably answers the question of whether you are adding value to them.  To succeed personally, you must try to help others.  That's why Zig Ziglar says, "You can get everything in life you want if you help enough other people get what they want." 
We do a lot of things well as a church.  There are a lot of things that we can get better at doing too.  We can do a pretty good job at times of valuing others, but we can do a better job at that too.
When people know that they are valued, they tend to stick around.  When people feel valued, they feel accepted, and when they feel accepted, they feel loved.
In what ways do we really help people feel valued?  Again, I think we do a great job of that for those who are a part of our church family.  We can do better.  However, I don’t think we do a very good job of that with those outside of our church family, specifically, those whom God has called us to reach out to. 
This year, I’d like for us to put an emphasis on valuing our neighbors. 
When we have an encounter with people in our communities, here in Brainerd and in Park Rapids, will they be able to respond, “My life is better because of the people that are apart of Community of Hope Church of the Nazarene?”
How do you do that as an individual and how do we do that as a church collectively?  How can you and how can we turn our focus from yourself or ourselves, and start adding value to others? 
You / We can do it by:
1.   Putting others first in our thinking.
2.   Finding out what others need.
3.   Meeting that need with excellence and generosity.
I truly believe that if we can focus on that this year, then we will be more active in living out being an Acts 1:8 kind of church.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
 The result of that will be, Acts 2:47, And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Think about this, when people think about you, do they say to themselves, "My life is better because of that person"?  Let’s value what we do, so that others will sense the value that God places on them.  And to Him, they are priceless.

Think about how God pursues people and how He wants to use us to reach out to others with His message of HOPE for their lives.  Sometimes we need to be reminded of where we came from.  How did God pursue you?  Who was it that spoke into your life and helped lead you to the realization that you needed a Savior?  How was God working in your life even before you realized it?
Remember, God is pursuing lost people even before they know it.  He does this by using us to plant seeds of righteousness in their lives.  However, we need to be alert and ready to “GO” when God calls us into action.  The problem is, some of us are way too busy with our own agenda, that we miss out on what God wants to do in and through us.  That includes sharing our story with others (plantings seeds).
So, as we were challenged on Sunday, I want to challenge you again to: 1. Pray for your willingness.  Ask God to help you be more aware of the fact that He is already at work in others people’s lives, and then be ready to “GO” when He says, “GO!”  Then number 2. Ask God to connect you with someone who is ready to hear the Good News of the gospel.
What, after all, is Apollos?  And what is Paul?  Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task.  I planted, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”  1 Corinthians 3:5-6
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last.” John 15:16
What would happen if we were a church that was spreading HOPE all over the place?  How many lives can we reach out to if we all allowed the HOPE of Christ to overflow out of us?  (Romans 15:13)
I don’t want to be satisfied with where we have been, I want to daily walk where God wants to lead us.
Pastor Dave

Beginning this week, Pastor Dave's blogs will be posted under "The Story" tab on the "Pastor's Weekly Devo" page.  You can access it by clicking HERE.

Regular posts will resume the week of May 21, 2017

Today is May 5th, also known as Cinco de Mayo.  It's the National Day of Prayer, and it is also Ascension Day.  This is the 40th day of Easter when we recognize the day that Jesus ascended into Heaven.  You can read about this event in Acts 1:1-11.

This past Sunday, Pastor Jim challenged us to have Eye's to See the mission that God has called us to be about.  In this passage from Acts, Jesus puts this mission in front of His disciples yet again, just prior to Him ascending into Heaven.  He said to them in vs. 8, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

If you are an eye witness to something, it is something that you have experienced yourself.  You have first hand knowledge of what took place, and how it affected you.  That affect needs to effect those around you, as you share with them how God has changed your life.  That is the mission that we are called to be about.  To be His witnesses in the Brainerd Lakes Area and in all of Minnesota and the United States and to the ends of the earth.  

Look for an opportunity to share with someone today, how God has changed your life.  On this Ascension Day, let's have eyes to see the mission (the people) around us who need to be encouraged by our story of transformation, and be His witnesses.

I'm looking forward to seeing you on Sunday!