Pastormills's Weblog

Hope Full

pastormills — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 04:13:55 +0000

Lamentations 3:22-24 (ESV)
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

We have reason to have hope. It is not in ourselves. Our hope is in God. But is hope simply a state of mind? Or does hope change how we live? I believe hope changes how we deal with troubled relationships. In ourselves, we can not bring healing to every relationship. But hope allows me to believe that God’s grace can bring healing even to the most damaged of relationships. Hope changes how we give. Others may say what we give to others, doesn’t make a difference. But hope teaches me that God can make much out of little. Hope should not just be an attitude, but it should lead to action as well. Hope moves us into a marred and hurting world, knowing that somehow through us, God can make a difference.

Thankful

pastormills — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:27:45 +0000

Life is full of blessings. I think despite this most of us have to confess that far too often we fail to see those blessings. Instead, our focus is on the problems. We have all heard the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Too often that principle plays out in our lives and we spend all of our time focusing on what troubles us and never acknowledge how we are blessed. I think of the ten lepers healed by Jesus. Only one returned. What happened to the other 9. Did they not realize they were blessed? Or did they just not pause long enough to acknowledge the blessing? They had more important things to do. I believe God expects not only to realize the blessing but also that we take the time to acknowledge the blessing. Thanksgiving is a time, hopefully not the only time, when we stop and acknowledge we are blessed. I have enjoyed all of the Facebook posts that have talked about what individuals are blessed by this month. I am thankful for God – salvation- life – health – my wife – my boys – my extended family – my friends – my church – my call – freedom . . . And the list could go on and on. WE ARE BLESSED!! Take time to be thankful.

The Family of God

pastormills — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 01:48:14 +0000

What an awesome privilege to be a part of the church. In the church we rejoice and cry together. We do life together. The church is not perfect or full of perfect people, but somehow God uses it to teach us what it means to be Holy. In the body, we learn what it means to love. We watch and listen, and learn what it means to have faith, to persevere, to give, to forgive, to love, to confess, and to grow in Christ. I am curious, what is the best life lesson someone in the church has taught you?

Money

pastormills — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 02:40:31 +0000

Tomorrow morning we will be talking about money and giving. What is the best money decision you have ever made? The worst?

Rest

pastormills — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:38:31 +0000

Sunday we will be talking about Sabbath rest. One of the things that should happen in our times of Sabbath rest, is that we should find renewed connection with God. What are the things that you do that allow you to connect most to God?

Freedom

pastormills — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 11:32:08 +0000

Moses had settled into a pretty good routine. While taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep, God interrupted Moses quiet life with a call. Go to Egypt, and set my people free. This was not an easy or a comfortable task. Moses had to risk it all to follow God. This isn’t an old call, but a contemporary one. Jesus came to set the captive free. As followers of Jesus, we must also work to set the captive free. But we can not do this without leaving our comfort zones. We must be willing to risk. We must be willing to get our hands dirty. We must be willing to pay the price. Are you working to bring freedom to others?

unlike the church facebook page

pastormills — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:03:21 +0000

I thought I would use my other social networks to get the word out. Please unlike the church facebook account. If we have under 100 likes, we can simply name the current page to reflect Gracepointe as the new name. We could simply do a new page, but I don’t want to lose all the photos and conversations on the current page.

Service in the Park

pastormills — Sat, 28 May 2011 23:52:40 +0000

I am excited about tomorrow. One service at 11 am at Trenton Community Park. Come out and bring a friend. We will be eating afterwords. Bring a lawn chair, a side dish, and a 2 liter bottle of pop.

The importance of being truly christian in our community

pastormills — Sun, 01 May 2011 02:27:12 +0000

“The biggest problem facing Christian theology is not translation but enactment… the necessity of the church being a community of people who embody our language about God, where talk about God is used without apology because our life together does not mock our words. * * * Christianity is more than a matter of a new understanding. Christianity is an invitation to be part of an alien people who make a difference because they see something that cannot be otherwise seen without Christ. Right living is more than the challenge of right thinking. The challenge is not the intellectual one but the political one—the creation of a new people who have aligned themselves with the seismic shift that has occurred in the world since Christ.” Resident Aliens

Prayer

pastormills — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:49:41 +0000

True, whole prayer is nothing but love. – St. Augustine