Growin' Up Gregory

I received this e-mail the other day and felt like it I had to share it...this should wake us up. One day, a man went as a visitor to a church.  He got there early, parked his car and got out.  Another car pulled up near by and parked.  The driver got out and said, "I always park there! You took my place!" The visitor went inside for the service, found an empty seat and sat down.  A young lady from the church approached him and stated, "That's my seat! You took my place!"  The visitor was somewhat distressed by this rude welcome, but still said nothing. After the service, the visitor went into the Sanctuary and sat down to pray.  Another member came up to him and said, "That's where I always sit! You took my place!"  The visitor was even more troubled by his treatment, but still said nothing. Later as the congregation was praying for Christ to dwell among them, the visitor stood up, and his appearance began to change.  His clothing became...

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" - Jeremiah 29:11 This verse is one I'm sure many people know and is most often times turned to when things are at their darkest. When problems come into our lives (whether by death, illness, divorce, or some other loss) it can seem as though we've been handed an unworked puzzle.  It's very important that we work through major losses like those listed above, or others, in our own time with God's help.  Everyone doesn't deal with the same situations the same way and work through the puzzles in life the same way.  Some people start with the flat edges of a puzzle while others start with a distinctive feature of it. But when we throw our puzzle together incompletely to accommodate others and just put on our "happy face" then we are cutting short the plan God has for us.  He has a plan to give us hop...

How do we strengthen our faith? In my studies I've found four simple, although not necessarily easy, ways to strengthen our faith. First, we add muscle to our faith by reading the Bible.  "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." - Romans 10:17  There really isn't any explanation necessary for this one.  If you believe in something then you want to know more and more about it and the way to learn more about God is through reading his word. We also strengthen our faith through prayer and fasting.  The disciples had just attempted to cast a demon out of a man's son but had been unsuccessful.  However, Jesus was able to rebuke the demon and cast him out.  Later on the disciples asked Jesus why they were unable to cast this demon out since they had done this and other miracles before.  In Matthew 17:20-21, Jesus answered the disciples "Because of your unbelief, for assuredly,...

Why do we need faith? The easiest answer is that we live lives of uncertainty.  Often times bad things happen to good people and folks that we think deserve to live forever die to young and we're left with questions about that world for God.  Well, if God gave us all the answers to life now we wouldn't need faith.  He tells us 2 Corinthians 5:7 "For we live by faith, not by sight".  With God, seeing isn't believing, believe is seeing...remember doubting Thomas? In Matthew 10:16, Jesus says "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.  Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves".  Why did Jesus call us sheep when he could have used any other prey/predator relationship out there?  Sheep have poor depth perception of vision, they can't see what's right in front of their faces.  However, they have excellent hearing.  I believe this is another subtle way of God telling us to close our eyes and open up our ears.  We have t...

I spoke Sunday night at church on the topic of faith so since I put so much time into studying on that I felt like I had to get it out again so here goes... What is faith?  Better yet, what is the difference between pop culture faith and biblical faith? Pop culture faith tells us that faith is characterized a blind leap, or leaping into the dark.  It's also defined by some as the opposite of reason, and has been said that if you have evidence you cannot have faith.  It's even considered by some to be blindly following a religion.  Well that's not the biblical concept of faith. The Christian definition of faith is based on evidence and reason.  In 1 Corinthians 5:17 Paul says "And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins."  Well I for one don't believe that my faith is futile, and Paul doesn't mention that faith doesn't require evidence.  Instead, he places the entire basis of Christianity on an event that can be te...