Love Christ

 To whatever end... As I have been walking through my day-to-day life, the Lord has placed this phrase on my heart numerous times. It wasn't hard for me to figure out what it meant, to whatever end means, to what end, what length are you willing to go for Jesus? My heart has been pulled to those who have yet to hear the name of Jesus. Those who may never get the chance to hear His name on this side of Heaven, therefore meaning they won't spend eternity with us. Every time I think about it, I get to emotional, but I believe that God is speaking through this new series to show and challenge us in our evangelism. The Great Commission. We have all probably heard it numerous times before, but I want to look at it again because I believe it was spoken and there is power in it. Let's look at The Great Commission in the book of Matthew.  "Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain wh ere Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some...

      The first part of this series discussed the hard question, "Why would God let bad things happen?" I highlighted that God doesn't cause bad things to happen to us, but He does use those things to grow us. I want to continue that today. Continuing to ask questions and seek God is good and deepens our relationships with Him.     There is evil in the world. It is sad, but it is the truth. God knew that He would send His son to die on the cross and that people would reject that gift. I think it's easy to look at a hard question like this and ask, "Why wouldn't God save _____." Why wouldn't God heal my hurting and sick family member? Why would God allow that person to leave us? Why would God let someone get cancer? Deep down, no matter how hard we try to conceal it, these questions and doubts from the devil try to swarm our minds and our hearts every day.      I went on a mission trip to Jamaica last week, and it encouraged me to continue to ...

  Things are not always clear-cut in our lives. There will always be things that we don't understand, things that we question. As I have been praying about what I wanted to write about, God reminded me of questions we have throughout our relationship with Him. This new series is all about the hard questions that we wrestle with. A question I always hear and want to start with is, "Why would God let bad things happen?"      A father told this story about his son that I think applies to our relationship with God. His son was curious; when a candle was burning, he went to touch the flame of the candle. The mother saw this and wanted to protect her son from the flame. The father knew it wouldn't scar him, it wouldn't hurt him forever, and by touching the flame, his son would learn not to touch fire. The father and mother disagreed and did not let their son touch the flame. A couple of days later, they went to a barbecue with a full-fledged fire. This fire had embers...

      Here is another beautiful aspect of creation that will really help to tie everything in this series together. There is a dark hole in the center of the whirlpool galaxy. For years, scientists have directed telescope after telescope to different parts of the galaxy to try to discover what it holds. Scientists finally built a telescope that was big enough and had enough power to be directed into the center of the whirlpool galaxy, and when they did, they had one chance to press a button that then would send a picture back to Earth. Look at the picture that was sent back to Earth... If you look at the center of this picture, it looks like a cross. Again, this isn't proving that God is real, but it was a revelation for me that He is everywhere.      Jesus sees and fully knows the craters we are afraid to show the world. In the deepest, darkest part of our struggles, our shame, Jesus is there. In the darkest part of our craters, we are reminded of the...

 Many people in western civilization have heard the name of Jesus, some may also know something about the gospel. Many however, have not really experienced the power in the name of Jesus. The gospel is beautiful, exciting, and life changing. It's easy for us, as Christians, to brush off the importance of the gospel because we have heard it so many times. We let it become something that is normal in our lives, not something incredible. I want to encourage you not to tune out to the gospel, but to have a new appreciation every time you hear it, receive it, and share it. Most, if not every person you will ever talk to in your life will know who Jesus is. Changes are, we aren't going to go up to someone, say the name Jesus, and them ask, who? Sharing the gospel is so much more than sharing the name of Jesus. Most people know the name of Jesus and even recognize Him as an important historical figure, but if they haven't accepted Jesus, they haven't committed themselves to li...

Take a moment and look up to the sky. We call Earth home but when you think of outer space, stars, the sun, the moon, and galaxies it begs the question- is there more life outside of Earth? One of the biggest controversies in science right now is the question of, is there more life outside of Earth? Most scientists believe that this world can’t just be for Earth, if it was, the universe is way too big. That makes total sense, but what if that’s not the reason for the creation of the universe? We don’t even know the full extent of the universe, so why would it be used to benefit us? What if it was actually created to glorify God?     There is so much that we don’t know about the universe. What we have discovered of the Universe, we call the known Universe. Until I did some research, I had never heard of something called astronomical units. Scientists use astronomical units to measure outer space as well as light years. To try to remotely put the size of astronomical units ...

 This new sermon series is all about science. There are a lot of different views and opinions about science in the Christian community, which is why I think it's important to look at it from a Biblical standpoint. From the start, I want to make it clear that I'm not telling you what you should and shouldn't believe, but I am showing you the truth in the Word of God.  The culture that we are living in has this idea that we can either believe in God or believe in science. God is the creator of science, which is why I think this idea is the total opposite of what is true. Science isn't something that should be bringing us farther away from God, but closer. Just like people can and have altered the Bible, people can and have altered science. Without God, how are we supposed to understand science? We can't fully grasp and wrap our heads around creation without God, and this is why it's been altered. Altered to the human mind, when the mind of an extraordinary God cre...