The Dance of Desire
The love of money can be destructive, causing one to wander far from the love, relationship and purpose God has for them. Pastor Jon Adams describes a path back our first love, expressed in the three-four time of a waltz: Flee, Follow and Fight. Scripture references: 1 Timothy 6:10-12a; 1 Corinthians 10:14; 2 Corinthians 5:21.
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The Money Trap
Contrary to popular opinion, money is not the root of all evil: it’s neutral. The problem lies in the heart. Our response to money is what leads either to bondage or freedom to truly live. Pastor Jon Adams delves into how a distorted desire for money destroys relationships, and a powerful way to displace the love of money with a greater love for God and the freedom He gives. Scripture references: 1 Timothy 6:9-10; Matthew 6:21,6:33,22:37; Mark 10:17-22.
Money will either be like a trap to bind you or tool to free you to truly live.
Communion meditation for 01/22/2012:
When we surrender every area of our lives– including our finances–to God, then we are free to trust Him to meet our needs. But if we would rather hold tightly to those things that we possess, then we find ourselves in bondage to those very things.
Larry Burkett, Money Matters
There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in the [christian] life. Because it is so natural, it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is. But its outworkings are tragic.
A. W. Tozer, The Works Of A. W. Tozer
There are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, mind, and the purse.
Martin Luther, Biography and Information
Economy is half the battle of life; it is not so hard to earn money as to spend it well.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Spurgeon Archive
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Ignited in Contentment
You won’t be content, satisfied on the inside until you’ve received the wealth only Jesus can give you. Pastor Jon Adams teaches on the true life and true wealth comes with a growing knowledge of God. Scripture references: 1 Timothy 6:6-8,17; Philippians 4:12b-13; Luke 16:13; 1 Chronicles 29:11-12a; James 1:17; Romans 8:31-32.
Communion meditation for 01/15/2012:
All joy emphasizes our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings.
C.S. Lewis
Unsatisfied desire is in itself more desirable than any other satisfaction.
C.S. Lewis
True contentment is a real, even an active, virtue – not only affirmative but creative. It is the power of getting out of any situation all there is in it.
G.K. Chesterton
Being “contented” ought to mean in English, as it does in French, being pleased. Being content with an attic ought not to mean being unable to move from it and resigned to living in it; it ought to mean appreciating all there is in such a position.
G.K. Chesterton
To be content with even the best people, we must be contented with little and bear a great deal. Those who are most perfect have many imperfections, and we have great faults; between the two, mutual toleration becomes very difficult.
Francois Fenelon
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Freed to Truly Live
Pastor Jon Adams begins a series of messages on what it means to ignite a life of generosity. Scripture references: 1 Timothy 6:17-19, Romans 8:32.
Resolved: To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
Jonathan Edwards
Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.
John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, 1703-1791.
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The Pursuit of God
Grasping and believing that God is pursuing you, that His love for you is extravagant, will change every part of your life. Vine Creative Director Brian Miller looks at what happens when we define ourselves as radically loved by God, and how that fuels our pursuit of Him in a never ending cycle.
Scripture reference: Psalm 63.
We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.
Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out
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Celebrating the Amazing
Join Reverend Tim Barton on a refreshing look at the birth of Christ after watching this video of kids retelling the Christmas Story.
Tim’s message:
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4th Sunday of Advent – The Candle of Peace
Peace can be very elusive, especially around the Christmas holidays. Things we struggle with, stress over and worry about can rob us of peace. Pastor Jon Adams offers a God empowered definition of peace as a growing internal calmness in the midst of a restless world. We need a shift in our way of thinking that comes about when we embrace the fact that our shoulders aren’t big enough for the load we carry, but our Heavenly Father’s are. Scripture reference: Isaiah 26:3.
Nothing in the past, the present, or the future can cause Jehovah to be unkind to me.
Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening
Communion Meditation for 12/18/2011:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
C.S. Lewis
But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5
Speak, move, act in peace, as if you were in prayer. In truth, this is prayer.
Francois Fenelon
All the glory and beauty of Christ are manifested within, and there He delights to dwell; His visits there are frequent, His condescension amazing, His conversation sweet, His comforts refreshing; and the peace that He brings passeth all understanding.
Thomas a Kempis
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3rd Sunday of Advent – The Candle of Joy
Pastor Jon Adams shares a message about the one true source of joy, the Father who never forgets his children, even when we forget who we are in Him. Scripture references: Isaiah 49:13-16, Psalm 137:1-6, John 20:19-20.
Communion Meditation for 12/11/2011:
Eighteenth century American pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards writes in Charity and Its Fruits: It is not contrary to Christianity that a man should love himself or, which is the same thing, should love his own happiness. That a man should love his own happiness is as necessary to his nature as the faculty of the will is.
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:11
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy I will sing and make melody to the LORD.
Psalm 27:4-6
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right[a] spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51:10-12
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2nd Sunday of Advent – Candle of the Way
The warnings of Isaiah as Israel gave herself over to the spiritual darkness in and around them in Canaan are just as applicable to us today. Pastor Jon Adams explores the way and the journey out of darkness that is in Christ, the light of the world. Scripture references: Isaiah 42:16, Ephesians 6:12, 1 Corinthians 4:5, Ephesians 1:17-19, Matthew 5:14-16.
Communion Meditation for 12/04/2011:
The blind person does not need a new eye; what he needs is that the opacity, the veil, the mist that has developed in his lens should be removed. The moment that occurs he will be able to appreciate the light and see things as he did before. Now that is the condition of man in sin; he has a natural understanding, he has the faculty, the ability, but he cannot use it in spiritual matters. It is blinded, it is darkened, this veil has come upon it, the shutter has fallen; and though the glorious light of God’s revelation is there shining before him in the Scriptures, and indeed even in nature, he cannot see it. Therefore it is necessary that this ‘eye of our understanding’ should be enlightened, that the opacity, the veil, should be taken away in order that the spiritual eye may be able to function as it did in man’s original creation.
D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones, commenting on Ephesians, chpt. 1 verse 18.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.
Colossians 1:13 (ESV)
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1st Sunday of Advent – Candle of Hope
Although Advent is perhaps more commonly associated with Jesus’ birth as the promised hope of Israel, it also represents hope in Christ’s promised return. Pastor Jon Adams discusses what real hope does and doesn’t look like, and some ways to know the hope God gives. Scripture references: Isaiah 8:17, Isaiah 7:1-2, Proverbs 13:12, Psalm 33:16-18, Genesis 49:18, Psalm 130:5, Psalm 71:14.
Songs, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinners, and sweet words do not make Christmas. Christmas is saying yes to something beyond all emotions and feelings. Christmas is saying yes to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel. Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work and not mine.
Henry Nouwen
Expectation draws a line beneath which nothing can be received as a gift.
Paul Young
Communion Meditation for November 27th, 2011:
All we could ever imagine, could ever hope for, He is. … He is the Prince of Peace whose first coming has already transformed society but whose second coming will forever establish justice and righteousness. All this, and infinitely more, alive in an impoverished baby in a barn. That is what Christmas means–to find in a place where you would least expect to find anything you want, everything you could ever want.
Michael Card in The Promise
Hope is the poor man’s bread.
George Herbert
Forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable, Faith means believing the unbelievable, And hoping means to hope when things are hopeless.
G. K. Chesterton
Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man.
Pliny the Elder
Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.
G. K. Chesterton
We want to create hope for the person … we must give hope, always hope.
Mother Teresa
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